File a Strategic Project application carrying ten items: evidence against the criteria, a UN Framework Classification, a permitting timetable, a public-acceptance plan, ownership and control information, a business plan, a jobs and skills estimate, a post-exploitation environmental restoration plan, an alternative-locations assessment in protected areas, and an indigenous-peoples consultation plan.

Applications for recognition of a critical raw material project as a Strategic Project shall be submitted by the project promoter to the Commission. The application shall include: (a) relevant evidence related to fulfilment of the criteria laid down in Article 6(1); (b) a classification of the project according to the United Nations Framework Classification for Resources, supported by appropriate evidence; (c) a timetable for the implementation of the project, including an overview of the permits required for the project and the status of the corresponding permit-granting process; (d) a plan containing measures to facilitate public acceptance including, where appropriate, measures to facilitate the meaningful involvement and active participation of affected communities, the establishment of recurrent communication channels with local communities, organisations, including social partners, and relevant authorities, and the implementation of awareness-raising and information campaigns and potential mitigation and compensation mechanisms; (e) information about the control of the undertakings involved in the project, as defined in Article 3(2) and (3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 ( 3 ), and, where multiple undertakings are involved, information outlining the relative involvement of each undertaking in the project; (f) a business plan evaluating the financial viability of the project; (g) an estimate of the project’s potential for quality job creation and the project’s needs in terms of skilled workforce and a work plan to support upskilling and reskilling and promote inclusive representation of the workforce; (h) for projects in third countries or in OCTs involving extraction, a plan to improve the environmental state of the affected sites after the end of exploitation, with a view to restoring the prior environmental state while taking into account technical and economic feasibility; (i) for projects related exclusively to processing or recycling located in areas protected pursuant to Directive 92/43/EEC or Directive 2009/147/EC, a description of the technically appropriate alternative locations assessed by the project promoter and why those alternative locations are not considered to be appropriate locations for the project; (j) for projects with the potential to affect indigenous peoples, a plan containing measures dedicated to a meaningful consultation of the affected indigenous peoples about the prevention and minimisation of the adverse impacts on indigenous rights and, where appropriate, fair compensation for those peoples, as well as measures to address the outcomes of the consultation.