In 2024, Belgium was the world’s fourth-ranked producer of selenium, accounting for 5.4% of global production; fourth-ranked producer of arsenic trioxide, accounting for 1.6% of global production (not including United States production); and sixth-ranked producer of indium (intermediate, crude indium hydroxide), accounting for 1.7% of global production. Additionally, the country’s lime production accounted for 0.3% of global production. Other mineral commodities produced in Belgium included cement, cobalt, copper, iron and steel, lead, nitrogen (ammonia), tin, and zinc.
Output by Belgium’s industry sector accounted for 14.3% of the country’s gross domestic product. The manufacture of basic metals and fabricated metal products contributed 3.2% to industry output; the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products, 2.9%; and mining and quarrying, 0.07%. Mineral-related exports to the United States included antimony, arsenic, copper, diamond, germanium, iron oxide pigments, platinum, palladium, and zirconium. There is no national mining law in Belgium. According to Article 6 §1, VI of the Law of the Reform of 1980, the authority of policy and management of mineral resources in Belgium, apart from those on the continental shelf in the North Sea, is the responsibility of the three administrative regions of Belgium: Brussels-Capital Region, Flemish Region, and Walloon Region. In the Flemish Region, surface mineral resource policy is regulated by the Decree on Surface Mineral Resources of April 4, 2003, as amended, and its associated implementing decree (VLAREOP) of March 26, 2004. In the Walloon Region, mines are regulated by the Mine Decree of July 7, 1988, and quarries are regulated mainly by the Quarries Decree of July 4, 2002, modified by the Decree of May 31, 2008, and the Decree of March 11, 1999, on the environmental permit. The mineral industry in Belgium was largely privately owned by either domestic or European-based companies apart from NLMK Belgium Holdings S.A., which was 49% owned by the Walloon Government, and the Umicore Group, which was 5% owned by the Belgian Government.
In 2024, the Belgian Government passed a new law on deep-sea mining, the Law Relating to the Protection of Human Beings and the Environment during the Prospection, the Exploration, and the Exploitation of Marine Resources, the Seabed and the Subsoil Beyond the Limits of National Jurisdiction, May 25, 2024. This law provides for the regulation of activities and environmental protection of the marine environment, as well as the dissemination of information for public participation in granting, amending, and renewing certificates of sponsorship. The Walloon Government passed the Decree of March 14, 2024, on establishing the Code for the Management of Subsurface Resources (Walloon Subsoil Code), which modernizes the previous legal framework for mines with provisions that establish time limits on mining permits and a new slag classification system. Additionally, it ensures long-term sustainability of mineral resources and the management of post-mining obligations.
