The European mining industry has a long tradition. Although the continent's mining earns a small share of GDP, it provides a large and significant share of the world-wide production.

Before World War II, the economy of Europe remained largely on coal as its source of primary energy with very little of the diversification into oil and gas that had already occurred in the United States. Coal, which was a major fuel for the world's largest economies for more than a century, is now giving way to renewables. During a week in April 2018 the United Kingdom went 55 hours without coal in favor renewable energy in the United Kingdom. The UK was one of the earliest adopters of renewable energy and it has far more windmills installed than other countries in the world.

The continent itself is rich in natural resources, and minerals, which are use in every-day life such as construction materials for infrastructure, building, roads, production of steel, cars, computers, medicines and fertilisers. The mining and quarrying industry which extracts these minerals is very important to industrial, social and technological process in the European Union. Industrial minerals, such as barytes, kaolinite or salt, are extracted within the European Union to supply a wide range of industries.

Of those, Sweden is one of the European Union's leading ore and metal-producing countries and the Swedish mining industry is in a period of strong growth. An expanding Swedish mining industry would also contribute to greater self-sufficiency in the European Union, which was a priority in the "Raw Materials Initiative — meeting our critical need for growth and jobs in Europe", presented by the European Commission in 2008 and 2010. By 2020, resource mines in the European Union can possibly become diversified.

Europe's mining industry had a long, profitable history, dating as far back as 8,000 years ago in eastern Europe, and mining copper as far back as early in eastern Europe and Spain. In Ancient Rome, mining for gold and copper in Spain, Cyprus and eastern Europe and tin in Cornwall were important. Dating back as far as the Neolithic, all kinds of mineral rocks were mined in all parts of Europe.Underground mining required significantly more energy than surface operations because of the need for ventilation and pumps, and the longer haulage distances involved.