Rare earth materialsOvercoming problems, risks associated with rare earth metals
Numerous metallic elements – called rare earth materials — are regarded as critical: they play an ever more important role in future technologies, but there is a high risk of supply bottlenecks. Small and medium-sized companies are also affected by this, and they are often not sure which of these materials they are dependent on. A recent event at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) aimed to demonstrate ways in which industry and the research community can counter supply risks and the consequence of the ever greater use of these raw materials.
Numerous metallic elements are regarded as critical: they play an ever more important role in future technologies, but there is a high risk of supply bottlenecks. Small and medium-sized companies are also affected by this, and they are often not sure which of these materials they are dependent on.
At a Technology Briefing at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), strategies for the sustainable use of critical materials were presented and discussed.
The event, titled of “Strategies for the sustainable use of critical materials,” was held at the end of January at the EMPA Academy in Dübendorf, in conjunction with the Stiftung Entwicklungsfonds Seltene Metalle (Foundation for Rare Metals) (ESM).
An EMPA release reports that the event aimed to demonstrate ways in which industry and the research community can counter supply risks and the consequence of the ever greater use of these raw materials. As Patrick Wäger from the Technology and Society Department at EMPA explained, critical raw materials are materials which are critical for the economy and society, yet at the same time there is a relatively high supply risk. According to a study commissioned by the EU in 2014, the critical raw materials include a wide range of “rare” metals, that is, metals whose occurrence in the earth’s crust is less than 0.01 percent by weight. These metals include gallium, germanium, indium, cobalt, platinum metals, and the rare earth elements. The reasons for the high supply risk are the concentration of production of these raw materials in just a few countries, low recycling rates, and poor substitutability.
Maren Liedtke from Deutschen Rohstoffagentur (DERA) at the German Mineral Resources Agency, addressed the issue of the raw materials supply cycle and pointed out that the capital decline in the mining sector, and in processing in particular, may lead to supply deficits in the medium term. Companies must therefore keep an eye on the markets and develop safeguarding and alternative strategies. She agreed with Wäger that the geological availability of these raw materials was not the main problem, even given that demand was increasing. The increasingly negative ecological and social effects of the mining of raw materials are much more worrying.
