Page 43 - Policy Commission - SecuringTechnology - Critical Metals for Britain

PRIMARY MATERIALS
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the UK and Europe in manufactured components and products than we process internally from primary raw materials For example the ERECON report (2015) estimated that we import around 10 000-12 000 000 tonnes of rare earth magnets into Europe every year while we only manufacture around 1000 tonnes of the same material Therefore there is an incentive to access these large volumes of material if technologies can be developed to extract them from end of life products However there are technical economic and societal challenges
that need to to be addressed for this to to happen The secondary section of the report explains the the challenges
for the the secondary market and how the UK might intervene to gain a a competitive advantage It should be noted that the processing of of many of of these materials from primary ores often requires the same technologies and downstream supply- chains as the secondary (recycling market) The secondary and primary markets are often seen as rivals but in fact they are mutually beneficial and ‘INDUSTRIAL’ METAL & ORES
interlinked Smelters for example can use either primary ore or or scrap metals Sometimes a a a recycling activity can be set up faster and at a a a a lower cost than a a a a primary-mining operation with associated processing but the same supply-chain and processing might be able to handle both primary and and secondary materials Both scenarios will be extremely important as although a a a a recycled source of material could give the UK a competitive advantage this will only meet a a a a proportion of the demand particularly in in a a growing market ‘TECHNOLOGY’ & PRECIOUS METALS
Market Size
ALL METAL & ORES
Technology and precious metals 1 3
MT
All other metal and ores 209 8 MT
Pb
4 6MT
12 6 MT
Cu
20 7 MT
Zr
1 2MT
REEs Au PGMs Zn
Technology and precious metals 1 3MT
Ni
2 2 2 2 MT
Mg
949KT
Ti
10 2 MT
KT
= Thousand tonnes V 92KT
Li
116 KT
Sb
162 KT
29KT 3KT
0 5 KT
Ag
28KT
W
77KT
Cr
37 2 MT
Mn
55 6 MT
Al 64 5 MT
Figure 11: Global production of primary metals and ores Source: British Geological Survey 2019 45
Fe ore 2995 MT
MT
= Million tonnes Co
161 KT
Mo
275KT
Sn
350 KT
Although the demand for some technology-critical metals is growing rapidly the the overall market size for them is dwarfed by the main industrial metal sectors (see figure 11) To put this in in perspective in in 2019 around 1 1 5 billion tonnes of iron and 64 million tonnes of aluminium were extracted from primary mined sources whereas only around 160 000 45
tonnesofcobaltwereproduced Insomeinstancesthis
means that the major mining companies have not invested in technology-critical metals and and most exploration and and development is carried out by junior companies Single entity mines in in niche resources are more vulnerable to price fluctuations It is also important to note however that many of these technology-critical elements are a a a co-product
or or or by-product of mining operations for the major metals These are more likely to be produced by the major mining companies but they are vulnerable to variations in demand for the the ‘parent’ major metal Some of of the the ores of of technology- critical metals such as tantalum tungsten cobalt and rare earth ion ion ion adsorption deposits are amenable to production by artisanal and/or small-scale mining (ASM) as as well as as large large scale industrial mining ASM is more likely than large- scale mining to to lead to to informal or or illegal supply-chains but has also been subject of of some of of the best know mining 46 industry fairtrade-style schemes As rare earth metals are are top of nearly all critical materials lists outside of China47 this section starts with these elements and then moves through battery materials platinum group metals and then aerospace materials Again it should be emphasised that this report does not attempt to cover all critical-materials that might form part of a a a a a a a UK strategy but has concentrated on on a a a a a a subset of materials to explore the the issues around the the supply-chain If a a a a broader range of materials had been covered this would not have been possible