Europe is desperate for secure sources of copper for its green transition, and Macedonia is sitting on one of its largest natural resources - and not touching it. The copper mine project in Ilovica, worth roughly 350 million euros, has been stalled for years, while the global price of copper keeps climbing.

The context is bigger than a single mine. The president of Euromines, the European mining industry association, warns that dependence on imported critical minerals is a strategic risk for the European economy. „We are seeing trade wars and export restrictions on these raw materials," he says, stressing that Europe needs a resilient supply chain. Copper is on the EU's critical minerals list, and right now, when geopolitics is rewriting the rules, those who hold the resources hold the leverage.

The „Ilovica" project bills itself as the largest greenfield investment in the country, with the potential for new jobs, revenue for the state budget and for the municipalities of Bosilovo and Novo Selo. Geologist Prof. Dr. Dimov points out that Macedonia and northern Greece share the same metallogenic belt - and offers as an example the „Skouries" mine in Halkidiki, where, he says, modern technologies with „practically zero emissions" and constant monitoring are in use. „I don't see why we couldn't follow that example too," he stresses.

Of course, the story of mining in Macedonia is never simple - behind every project like this sit real ecological fears and a history of distrust toward the institutions that are supposed to police it. And that is legitimate. But the question worth asking is a different one: instead of running the debate as „all or nothing," why hasn't the state offered a clear, expert, transparent assessment - what exactly is gained, what is risked, and under what conditions? When a country won't even open the discussion about its own resources properly, in the end it gets neither protection of nature nor economic benefit - just one more missed opportunity and one more push toward emigration.