Presentation short abstract

As Europe onshores critical mineral extraction, Andalusia’s copper boom reveals how decarbonisation agendas rely on intensified groundwater control. The CLC case shows how institutionalised dewatering reshapes hydrosocial relations and fuels scalar conflicts over resource security and justice.

Presentation long abstract

This paper examines the hydrosocial and political-ecological dynamics underpinning the EU’s push to onshore “critical” and “strategic” minerals through a case study of Andalusia, today one of Europe’s most actively promoted extractive frontiers. While framed as essential for decarbonisation, competitiveness and geopolitical security, the expansion of copper mining in the Iberian Pyrite Belt reveals how mineral supply strategies depend on the reorganisation of groundwater access and control.

Drawing on quantitative data and regulatory analysis of the Cobre Las Cruces (CLC) mine, we show how institutionalised dewatering, escalating groundwater abstraction and evolving licensing regimes materially reshape aquifers while redefining territorial water rights. These hydrosocial transformations illuminate the scalar contradictions at the heart of Europe’s mineral transition: EU-level ambitions to secure copper intersect with localised experiences of aquifer decline, environmental risk and social conflict.

By situating Andalusia’s mining boom within broader debates on externalisation and onshoring, the paper highlights how Europe increasingly internalises extractive pressures previously displaced to the Global South. Yet “green” onshoring does not resolve long-standing inequalities; instead, it reconfigures them through new forms of hydrological control, contested science, and the uneven distribution of water scarcity.

This contribution aims to unpack the socio-materiality and politics of critical minerals. It demonstrates how the making of Europe’s mineral future hinges not only on metal supply but on the governance of groundwater—a strategic resource whose depletion fuels local resistance and exposes the contradictions of mineral modernity.