EU Predicts Shortage of Raw Materials

2010-06-18

The European Commission has identified 14 mineral raw materials, including several metals and metal groups, which have high supply risks and could face shortages resulting from limited production sources and high demand.

An expert group assembled by the Brussels-based commission studied 41 minerals and metals groups to compile the “critical” supply list. Minerals on the critical list are antimony, beryllium, cobalt, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, graphite, indium, magnesium, niobium (also known as columbium), platinum group metals (PGMs), rare earths, tantalum and tungsten.

The experts concluded that demand might more than triple for some of the minerals between 2006 and 2030 and released forecasts of demand growth from emerging technologies for nine of the minerals as well as silver and copper. They said the growing demand for raw materials is driven both by the growth of developing economies and new emerging technologies.

The high supply risk was described as mainly due to the fact that a high share of the worldwide production mainly comes from a handful of countries including China for antimony, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, graphite, indium, magnesium, rare earths and tungsten; Russia for PGMs; the Democratic Republic of Congo for cobalt and tantalum; and Brazil for niobium and tantalum.

Technological change also influences the importance of raw materials and is expected to drastically increase demand for certain raw materials, the experts concluded. The main emerging technologies driving critical raw materials supplies are antimony tin oxide and micro capacitors for antimony; lithium-ion batteries and synthetic fuels for cobalt; thin layer photovoltaics, integrated circuits and white light emitting diodes for gallium; fiber optic cable for and infrared optical technologies for germanium; displays and thin layer photovoltaics for indium; fuel cells and catalysts for platinum PGMs; catalysts and seawater desalination for palladium PGMs; micro capacitors and ferroalloys for niobium; permanent magnets and laser technology for neodymium (rare earths); and micro capacitors and medical technology for tantalum.

The report is being shepherded by Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani. "We need fair play on external markets, a good framework to foster sustainable raw materials supply from EU sources as well as improved resource efficiency and more use of recycling," Tajani said in the statement.