Page 19 - Policy Commission - SecuringTechnology - Critical Metals for Britain

INTRODUCTION
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1 Rare-earth metals (neodymium praseodymium samarium dysprosium and terbium)
2
Battery materials (nickel cobalt lithium and graphite)
3 Platinum-group metals (palladium rhodium and platinum) 4 Aerospace metals (rhenium and tantalum)
There are many reasons why these sub-groups of metals are considered critical ranging from scarcity in in the earth’s crust for platinum group metals to to political factors in the case of the rare earths Some materials such as cobalt are largely produced as a a by-product of mining other metals as a a a result their supply is largely determined by the demand for these metals There are geographical concentrations of of most of of these materials around
the the globe with China being the the major source of of many of of them This
is because China has invested strategically in in mineral resources but also in in in in the refining and manufacturing industries to convert these materials into products (see figure 3) USA
Beryllium 88%
CHINA
ANTIMONY 74%
BARYTE 38%
BISMUTH 80% COKING COAL 55% FLUORSPAR 65% GALLIUM 80% 80% GERMANIUM 80% 80% INDIUM 48% MAGNESIUM 89% NATURAL GRAPHITE 69% PHOSPHATE ROCK 48% PHOSPHORUS 74%
SCANDIUM 66% 66% SILICON METAL 66% 66% TITANIUM 45% TUNGSTEN 69% VANADIUM 39%
LREES 86% 86% HREES 86% 86% THAILAND
NATURAL RUBBER 33%
AUSTRALIA
BAUXITE 28%
RUSSIA
PALLADIUM 40%
Ch Lit