SCRREEN Coordination and Support Action (CSA) This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227. Start date : 2016-12-01 Duration : 30 Months www.scrreen.eu Report on relevant business and policy issues for Europe pertinent to CRMs Authors : Mr. Tiess GUENTER (MinPol), Diego Murguia, Vojtech Wertich SCRREEN - D7.1 - Issued on 2018-02-15 10:50:21 by MinPol
Transcript
SCRREENCoordination and Support Action (CSA)
This project has received funding from the EuropeanUnion's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
under grant agreement No 730227.
Start date : 2016-12-01 Duration : 30 Monthswww.scrreen.eu
Report on relevant business and policy issues for Europe pertinent to CRMs
Authors : Mr. Tiess GUENTER (MinPol), Diego Murguia, Vojtech Wertich
SCRREEN - D7.1 - Issued on 2018-02-15 10:50:21 by MinPol
SCRREEN - D7.1 - Issued on 2018-02-15 10:50:21 by MinPol
SCRREEN - Contract Number: 730227Solutions for CRitical Raw materials - a European Expert Network Dimitrios Biliouris
Document title Report on relevant business and policy issues for Europe pertinent to CRMs
Author(s) Mr. Tiess GUENTER, Diego Murguia, Vojtech Wertich
Number of pages 100
Document type Deliverable
Work Package WP7
Document number D7.1
Issued by MinPol
Date of completion 2018-02-15 10:50:21
Dissemination level Public
Summary
Report on relevant business and policy issues for Europe pertinent to CRMs
Approval
Date By
2018-02-15 10:50:49 Mr. Tiess GUENTER (MinPol)
2018-02-15 11:34:35 Mr. Stéphane BOURG (CEA)
SCRREEN - D7.1 - Issued on 2018-02-15 10:50:21 by MinPol
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement No 730227
SCRREEN D7.1 [Report on relevant business and policy issues for Europe pertinent to CRMs] Rev.1 i
SCRREEN
Solutions for CRitical Raw materials – a European
Expert Network
D 7.1 – REPORT ON RELEVANT BUSINESS AND POLICY
ISSUES FOR EUROPE PERTINENT TO CRMS
AUTHORS:
Diego Murguía and Günter Tiess (MinPol GmbH)
CONTRIBUTIONS BY:
Vojtěch Wertich (MinPol GmbH), Arnold Tukker, Sebastiaan Deetman, Nabel A. Mancheri (CML, Leiden
University), W. Eberhard Falck (WEFalck Scientific Advisory and Expert Services), Per Kalvig (GEUS),
Matthias Buchert (Öko-Institut), Andrea Gassmann (Fraunhofer-Institut für Silicatforschung ISC),
Pascal Leory (WEEE Forum), Wolfgang Reimer (Geokompetenzzentrum Freiberg e.V.).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement No 730227
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TABLE OF CONTENT
List of figures ........................................................................................................................................... iv
List of tables ............................................................................................................................................. v
Acronyms, abbreviations, and terms ...................................................................................................... vi
About the SCRREEN Project .................................................................................................................... vii
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... viii
Table 6: List of Critical Raw Materials and their substitutes. Cases where substitutes for CRMs are other
CRMs are marked red in the table. ....................................................................................................... 81
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grant agreement No 730227
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ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS, AND TERMS
Acronym Full name
CRM Critical Raw Material DRC Democratic Republic of the Congo EIP-RM European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials EoL End-of-life EPR Extended Producer Responsibility EC European Commission EFSI European Fund for Strategic Investments EU European Union HREEs Heavy Rare Earth Elements LREEs LREEs Light Rare Earth Elements NA Not available OCTs Overseas countries and territories OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development RMI Raw Material Initiative R&I Research and innovation SME Small and medium-size enterprise U.S. / USA United States of America USGS United States Geological Survey UN United Nations WEEE Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment WTO WMD
World Trade Organisation World Mining Data
CRMs symbols
Sb Antimony Be Beryllium Bor Borates Co Cobalt (metal) Coal Coking coal Cr Chromium Fl Fluorite Ga Gallium Ge Germanium (metal) Gr Natural graphite (substance) In Indium (metal) Mg Magnesite, Magnesium Nb Niobium Phos Phosphate PGMs Platinum Group Metals Si Silicon metal LREE Light Rare Earth Elements HREE Heavy Rare Earth Elements W Wolfram (Tungsten)
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement No 730227
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ABOUT THE SCRREEN PROJECT
Since the publication of the first European list of Critical Raw Materials (CRM) in 2010 by the Ad-hoc
Working Group on CRM, numerous European projects have addressed (part of) the CRMs value and
several initiatives have contributed to gather (part of) the related community into clusters and
associations. This led to the production of important knowledge, unfortunately disseminated.
Numerous databases have also been developed, sometimes as duplicates.
SCRREEN aims at gathering European initiatives, associations, clusters, and projects working on CRMs
into along lasting Expert Network on Critical Raw Materials, including the stakeholders, public
authorities and civil society representatives.
SCRREEN will contribute to improve the CRM strategy in Europe by (i) mapping primary and secondary
resources as well as substitutes of CRMs, (ii) estimating the expected demand of various CRMs in the
future and identifying major trends, (iii) providing policy and technology recommendations for actions
improving the production and the potential substitution of CRM, (iv) addressing specifically WEEE and
other EOL products issues related to their mapping and treatment standardization and (vi) identifying
the knowledge gained over the last years and easing the access to these data beyond the project.
The project consortium also acknowledges the challenges posed by the disruptions required to develop
new CRM strategies, which is why stakeholder dialogue is at the core of SCRREEN: policy, society, R&D
and industrial decision-makers are involved to facilitate strategic knowledge-based decisions making
to be carried out by these groups. A specific attention will also be brought on informing the general
public on our strong dependence on imported raw materials, on the need to replace rare materials
with substitutes and on the need to set up innovative and clean actions for exploration, extraction,
processing and recycling.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement No 730227
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Since the launch of the Raw Materials Initiative in 2008, the European Commission (EC) has
continuously maintained a priority interest in securing a sustained and sustainable supply of raw
materials to the European industry, especially of raw materials identified as ‘critical’ due to their
economic importance and supply risk. This Deliverable identifies and aims to provide an overview of
the major and most relevant business and European policy issues relevant to CRMs in the European
Union (EU). The report principally addresses the 20 CRMs identified in 20141 by the EC as this report
was elaborated in advance to the publication of the 2017 CRM list.
CRMs market dynamics
The global market of primary CRMs is characterised by a supply concentrated in few countries (China,
South Africa, USA, Brazil, DR Congo) which produce and hold the available reserves of a large share of
the world´s CRMs. This high degree of concentration involves a high risk of supply disruptions due to
export restrictions (as shown in the past with China). The supply of CRMs is also characterised by CRM
products made available and traded not as crude raw materials but in refined products (e.g. the EU
entirely depends on imports of processed and semi-finished beryllium products). Moreover, while
many CRMs are extracted as the primary extraction target of a mine or quarry operation (borates,
niobium and REE). The EU is capable not only of extracting the raw materials but also of refining CRMs,
both from primary (virgin ores, CRMs often as by-products) and secondary (scrap) sources. However,
in order to unleash the mineral potential, the EU and the Member States need to address several of
the issues mentioned below which are hampering the sector from becoming a major supplier of CRMs
from domestic sources.
Main business and policies issues around CRM imports
In relation to EU imports stability, the concentration of production and reserves in a few countries
(China, South Africa, USA, Brazil, DRC) represents a high risk of supply disruptions due to potential
export restrictions, especially considering the role of China, still a dominant supplier of most CRMs
with private-public operations making it difficult to create competing supply under market conditions.
For years some companies (especially large ones) have deployed various strategies to reduce supply
disruption risks, but they still remain vulnerable to potential new supply risks. For instance, China may
supply cheap CRMs in the EU market disrupting EU producing and refining facilities, as exemplified by
the gallium supply with operations coming to a halt in 2013 in Hungary and in 2016 in Germany. The
new anti-dumping rules passed by the European Parliament in November 2017 may contribute to avoid
this situation in the future.
At the same time, the EU is actively deploying strategic partnerships and raw material policy dialogues
(bilaterally, regionally and multilaterally) with all its main CRM supplying countries; however, the
nature of the agreements is often of a broad nature and does not target specifically agreements for
the supply of specific CRMs. The EU trade policy is now advancing in the right direction with the Trade
for all strategy which calls for the inclusion of a chapter on energy and raw materials on all new FTA
negotiations; however, it is not yet clear if CRMs will be given priority over other materials. Also the
EU Conflict Minerals regulation has created high hopes of a culture and market of due diligence to
increase the transparency and fight against imports of one CRM (tungsten, and tantalum if the 2017
CRM list is considered) from non-responsible sources. Yet, little still is known about the magnitude of
illegal trade, routes and hubs of other CRMs which are still finding their way into the EU´s industrial
supply chain.
Main business and policy issues around supply from with the EU
Among the factors that undermine progress in the expansion of domestic extraction of CRMs in the EU
we can mention economic and market ones, regulatory, social and environmental ones.
On the market side, the demand plays an important role as it may be the case that the European
demand is insufficient to justify a large capital investment in the domestic production, as shown e.g.
by the example of REE. Thus, ensuring the possibility of off-take agreements with large demanders
(e.g. Chinese companies in the case of REE) is of central importance. Given some CRMs are used to a
high degree by a few technology applications, the demand may be suddenly modified by a new
product. In other words, certain CRM markets, particularly low volume ones, are inherently instable
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement No 730227
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and volatile – innovative product technologies may reduce (e.g. LED) or enhance (e.g. electric vehicles)
the need for CRMs suddenly. Moreover, such quick changes to the demand or changes to the supply
(e.g. supply shocks via unexpected export restrictions) may also cause high or frequent price volatilities
which often severely affects SMEs.
Availability of risk capital is also of importance and often lacking, e.g. there are functioning R&I
research alliances between European partners, but no alliance exists to fund important domestic mine
developments, e.g. discovered CRM deposits such as REE deposits. Another important aspect lies in
how global supply chains function. Enhancing EU supply via development of domestic CRM-containing
deposits does not necessarily mitigate supply risks since the primary materials will be still need to be
processed elsewhere, e.g. for intermediate products. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the CRMs
produced in the EU will be supplied to the EU market. In other words, developing the CRM supply in
Europe may not be enough if the next 2-3 tiers of the supply chain still are dominated by China or
another non-EU country.
On the legal and regulatory sides, there is a need for streamlining permitting procedures. Results of
MINLEX project2 indicated that while the EU´s legal framework provides a strong basis for achieving a
sustainable supply of raw materials from European sources, there exist many implementation
difficulties among MSs that prevent the non-energy extractive industry from having a level playing field
in the EU´s internal market and that also undermine permitting procedures.
On the social and environmental sides, there is still a need to increase the societal awareness on the
importance of CRMs for maintaining a competitive industry. There also remains a need to reduce a
widespread social opposition. To move in that direction, companies and permitting authorities should
make sure meaningful stakeholder engagement processes are implemented at a very early stage of
any mineral development project. The lack of proper stakeholder engagement can play against the
social acceptance of new exploration or extraction projects, specially those involving minerals which
are generally known to involve a high risk of pollution (e.g. fears of radioactivity for CRM exploration
projects with REE ores containing uranium and thorium).
Main business and policy issues around resource efficiency and CRMs
The EU has a robust set of policy and legislative measures that support the aim of a transition in Europe
towards a ‘resource efficient society’ and constitute a fundamental framework, also for
military/defence-related projects (e.g. MANGA project which managed to produce high-quality gallium
nitride-based electronic devices in Europe, without relying on international suppliers). Concerning
CRMs, the main ones include the Circular Economy Package (in whose Action Plan appear CRMs as a
priority waste stream), the Directive on End-of-life Vehicles (2000/53/EC), the WEEE Directive
(2012/19/EU), the Batteries Directive (2006/66/EC), Waste Shipment Legislation (Regulation
1013/2006/EC), and the Eco-Design Directive (2009/125/EC). Yet, EU legislation with regard to
recycling is currently focused on the amount of materials recycled (volume recycling), and has no focus
2 Although the MINLEX study was not focused on CRMs, we believe it to be in general representative of permitting difficulties CRM projects may face.
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on small flows of CRMs. Moreover, EU end of life legislation does not focus on specific collection and
recovery rates for CRMs like cobalt. Other issues which need to be addressed include the insufficient
amount of information on CRMs which could be potentially recycled and the lack of disaggregated data
on the use of CRMs (Eurostat).
Despite its potential, recycling of CRMs is still in need of further improvements. With the exception of
coking coal, fluorspar, magnesite, natural graphite and phosphate rock which cannot be recycled,
increasing the level of efficiency in which CRMs are handled through their life cycle bears a strong
potential to reduce the level of primary feed needed to supply the industry. Yet, in general and with
some exceptions, CRMs experience many losses during the life cycle, especially when reaching their
end-of-life.
Global average end-of-life recycling rates (indicate the percentage of a metal in discards that is actually
recycled) show a very low rate for various CRMs, being lower than 1% for beryllium, borates, gallium,
germanium, indium and REE, and between 1 and 10% for antimony and tungsten. In contrast, the only
CRMs which have end-of-life recycling rates over 50% are chromium, cobalt, niobium and the PGMs.
Low rates are caused due to relatively low efficiencies in the collection and processing of most metal-
bearing discarded products, inherent limitations in recycling processes (technical limitations such such
as gallium or germanium which are present in trace amounts within alloys making it technically very
difficult and expensive to recover), and because primary material is often relatively abundant and low-
cost (thereby keeping down the price of scrap).
The industry has been pioneering manifold solutions to increase the efficiency, and has been successful
especially in re-using and recycling pre-fabrication scrap. Design for recycling (embedded in the Eco-
Design Directive) bears a strong potential but its uptake by the market is slow in general and is only
implemented via incremental improvements. Other strategies such as substitution does not seem to
be fulfilling its full potential; we find that for some CRMs (antimony, cobalt, gallium, germanium,
indium, REE, silicon), the replacement metal is often from the same group of elements and thus a relief
in demand in one area might result in a new (supply) challenge in another.
A highlight in the EU´s recycling environment is given by new business models: one example is the
French company SNAM, which is one of the few companies worldwide to master metal recycling
techniques from batteries. Another example is the Belgian company Umicore which efficiently
recovers various CRMs such as antimony, cobalt (from batteries), indium and germanium.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement No 730227
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1 INTRODUCTION
Scope and objectives
Since the launch of the Raw Materials Initiative in 2008, the European Commission (EC) has
continuously maintained a priority interest in securing a sustainable supply of raw materials to the
European industry. For instance, the role of critical raw materials (CRMs) and their supply security has
been recognised in the European Defence Action Plan (COM (2016)950 Final) due to the high import
dependency in the defence industry3. Given also the industry´s high dependence on mineral imports,
the EC commissioned a first study to identify raw materials considered ‘critical’ on the basis of their
supply risk and economic importance. The EC produced a first list of 14 elements4 which was revised
in 2014 and led to 20 CRMs5. The list was revised and updated in 2017 leading to 27 CRMs6 and now
includes nine newly added CRMs: baryte, bismuth, hafnium, helium, natural rubber, phosphorus,
scandium, tantalum and vanadium (while chromium and magnesite were excluded). Given that the
work on this deliverable started much earlier than the publication of the new list in September 2017,
this Deliverable is working predominantly with the 20 CRMs identified by the EC in 2014, as follows:
Antimony Magnesite
Beryllium Magnesium
Borates Natural Graphite
Chromium Niobium
Cobalt PGMs (platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium)
Coking Coal Phosphate rock
Fluorspar Heavy rare earth elements (HREEs)7
Gallium Light rare earth elements (LREEs)8
Germanium Silicon Metal
Indium Tungsten
The overall objective of this Deliverable is to identify and provide an overview of the major and most
relevant business and European policy issues pertinent to CRMs in the mainland European Union (EU)
with a focus on the upstream and downstream supply chain. To a lesser extent references are made
of issues in the most important EU´s overseas countries and territories (e.g. niobium, PGMs and REE
potential in Greenland, cobalt in New Caledonia).
Given the complex settings that frame the life-cycle of products containing CRMs, an integrative value
chain approach is necessary to analyse the most pressing issues. This Deliverable reviews the major
3 The European defence industry requires specialised high-performance processed materials for the production of its defence products: 39 types of raw materials are necessary to manufacture such advanced materials. For about half of them, the defence industry relies 100% on imports from countries outside the EU. See Pavel & Tzimas (2016): Raw materials in the European defence industry; EUR 27542 EN doi:10.2790/0444, European Commission, https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/raw-materials-european-defence-industry 4 European Commission, “Critical Raw Materials for the EU. Report of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Defining Critical Raw Materials.” 5 European Commission (2014) “Report on the Critical Raw Materials for the EU. Report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Defining Critical Raw Materials.”, DG Enterprise and Industry 6 Deloitte et al., “Study on the Review of the List of Critical Raw Materials. Final Report - Study.” 7 Include europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, erbium, yttrium, others (holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium according to the EC Critical material profiles, http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/11911/attachments/1/translations , accessed 07.03.17 8 Include lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, samarium
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2 MINERAL POLICY CONSIDERATIONS
2.1 MINERALS POLICY CONCEPTION IN EUROPE
Any raw material policy (including mineral policies) is a cross-cutting topic and touches interrelated
sectoral (economic, environmental, social, defence, technology, land-use planning) policies10. One
needs to distinguish between a mining policy (focused on mineral extraction aspects/issues) and a
minerals policy, i.e. mining policy and minerals policy are not the same. The term ‘minerals policy’ is
related to the establishment of a minerals policy framework, which in turn, is based on (analyses of)
minerals consumption11 (e.g. EU vs. national vs. regional level) and considers the internal (national
territory) and external (beyond) component of a minerals policy framework.
Usually, the term ‘minerals policy’ covers only primary minerals, but it was suggested in several
publications12 to consider primary and secondary minerals equally. It has also been suggested13 even
to consider/include the whole minerals value chain when discussing a minerals policy framework. This
approach is of importance in the case of CRMs as many of them are disseminated in low quantities in
different products (e.g. gallium, indium) and a coordination is needed to modify the different links in
the chain to increase the recyclability of products. This means a paradigm shift in the general raw
material policy discussion is necessary because of the (increasingly) interrelated value chain aspects,
especially in the case of CRMs. Therefore, for SCRREEN we consider such policy perspective: when
discussing and establishing any minerals policy framework, decision makers need to consider and
foresee policy impacts along the whole minerals value chain.
Minerals policy is the part of an economic policy that is assigned to political economy in the scientific
sense14. In other words: economic policy is the part of state politics that deals with the shaping of
national economy15. It seems appropriate to refer to any state activity aiming directly at influencing
the extent, composition or distribution of the national product as economic policy16. An economic
policy is a policy that includes all measures with which the state intervenes, regulating and shaping the
economy. Economic policy specifies the rules, within which the (to a large extent) privately organised
economy can act. This leads to the following general definition of minerals policy:
“A minerals policy can be defined as the entirety of operations of a State for influencing supply of
mineral resources on its territory and beyond that” 17.
10 See Tiess, 2009; 2010; 2011; Kooroshi et al. (2015); Marinescu et al. (2013). Tiess, G. 2011. General and International Mineral Policy. Focus: Europe. Springer, ISBN 978-3-211-89004-2, 11 Mineral consumption (MC) = (primary+secondary) production + imports – exports (EU vs MS) 12 For instance: Tiess, G., Kriz, A. (2011): Aggregates Resources Policies in Europe - Development of IT Solutions for the Enhancement of Planning & Permitting Procedures.- Intern. J. Environ. Prot., 1(3): 63-66. http://www.academicpub.org/DownLoadPaper.aspx?PaperID=119 13 For instance, Tiess, discussions, e.g. during ERECON work progress (2015). 14 Siebert, Ökonomische Theorie natürlicher Ressourcen (Economic Theory of Natural Resources). 15 Tuchtfeldt, “Begriff „Wirtschaftspolitik".” 16 Molitor, Wirtschaftspolitik (Economic Policy). 17 Tiess, G. (2011) General and International Mineral Policy. Focus: Europe, 620 p., Wien: Springer, http://rd.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-211-89005-9/page/1.
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counterproductive and will not result in a cost-effective contribution to the gross domestic product of
a state. The right policy mix needs to be struck, which requires balancing different policy instruments
covering all angles (enable, encourage, engage, exemplify), e.g. financial, fiscal, costs structures &
pricing, standard setting, sustainable public procurement.
Policy integration, finally, concerns a shift from dispersed policy domains and decisions towards better
integration and synergies, also involving political judgement of the different impacts and prioritising
targets on the basis of an overall policy for sustainable development.
2.2 MINERALS POLICIES AND MARKET ECONOMIES
Governments provide the (raw material policy) framework for companies. It is important to distinguish
between policy categories21. Even though providing the economy with minerals (and base materials)
is primarily the task of private business22, there are essential reasons for the state to supervise it.
Production and consumption of minerals may result in serious externalities, including environmental
and social impacts. Minerals are products at the basis of all value chains and are processed by many
economic sectors, which influences all real assets. The economic importance of the raw materials
sector goes far beyond the economic activities strictly related to the extractive and processing
industries. In other words, the value of minerals in the value-added process of a national economy is
crucial. For instance, in 2012, the raw materials sector contributed EUR 280 billion of added value and
more than four million jobs to the EU economy. Looking at the metals value chain alone, more than 11
million jobs in downstream manufacturing sectors depend on the secure supply of metals, equal to
40% of the jobs and value added from the EU’s entire manufacturing sector23.
The access to domestic and foreign mineral resources requires long-term planning. Because of the high
research and capital expenditure involved and uncertain chances of success, the readiness to assume
risk is rather limited at some businesses. Due to the high costs of investigations and the, at the
beginning, often hardly assessable chances of success, investments are afflicted with greater risks than
in other economic sectors. Therefore, such investigations, if they are of public interest, may need to
be supported by the state in order to provide an incentive for the businesses to realise their projects24.
The measures of minerals policy should be set, above all, where the probability and extent of the risks
would, without public commitment, result in unfavourable effects for the economy not only in
quantitative, but also in price aspects. Finally, the minerals policy framework provides the relevant
framework conditions for the CRM industry aiming to ensure the sustainable supply with CRMs along
the value chain. In EU countries the industry (and not the state) is in general responsible for the
exploration, extraction, beneficiation, use in manufacturing, and recycling of CRMs.
21 Tiess, General and International Mineral Policy. 22 Linden, “Marktrelevante Überlegungen Zur Rohstoffversorgung Und Zu Beteiligungen Im Internationalen Bergbau, Erzmetall [Market-Relevancy Considerations for Raw Materials Supply and Participation in International Mining].” 23 EC, Joint Research Centre (Beatriz Vidal-Legaz et al.) (2016): Raw Materials Scoreboard. doi:10.2873/28674, http://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=8955&lang=en 24 It should be highlighted: Currently, investors and other actors in the innovation chain tend to shy away from investing in constructing mines in the EU -- partly due to the lengthy approval process and lack of security of investment.
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3 CRM MARKETS AND EUROPEAN CRM AVAILABILITY
3.1 CRM MARKETS AND PRODUCTION ISSUES
The demand for raw materials, including that of CRMs, is basically determined by global economic
growth, changes of industrial structure, raw material price, and technological changes25. Prices of
CRMs, as well as those of other raw materials, are subject to long-term cyclic fluctuations. Long lasting
price depressions result in production capacities not being developed any further and stocks in storage
being reduced. A rise in prices, however, causes new prospection and exploration in the medium term
that – provided the period of high price lasts sufficiently long – leads to the construction of new
mines26. Declining commodity prices and/or increasing operating costs result in lower profits, which
in effect, leads to cuts in growth-oriented spending. Investors are usually reluctant to invest, when
prices are low with weak economic forecasts. This has made it difficult for junior mining companies to
raise funds, and for production companies to justify intensive capital and exploration spending plans.
The global market of CRMs has some specific characteristics which differentitate it from other base
and precious metal ones. In the case of CRM supply to the EU, a special feature is the predominance
and large concentration in a few countries. As the Table 1 shows below, the European industry
is highly dependent upon imports of CRMs to ensure a continuous supply: around 90% of CRM
production originates from sources outside of the EU27. Of those, China remains the most important
partner followed by other quasi-CRM monopolies including the USA (beryllium), Brazil (niobium), and
the DR Congo (cobalt). Likewise, many of the previously mentioned countries are not only important
producers but also host the largest CRM mineral reserves.
Besides monopolies, oligopolies also appear to be forming. This entails a movement from a large
number of small producers to a small number of large producers. Measures are in place that shut
down or encourage the takeover of smaller firms, such as minimum extraction rates and restricted
access to mining rights. China appears to be pursuing a policy of oligopolization with respect to its
domestic phosphate industry and has been shutting down phosphate operations beneath 150,000
tonnes 28 . Second, monopolistic tendencies are becoming more pronounced. Depending on the
market outlook for viable reserves in key producer countries, some analysts predict that Morocco’s
market share could increase to 80-90% of global phosphate supply by 203029. Sources familiar with
Morocco’s plans also suggest that current production is being kept intentionally below capacity in
25 Cp. Tilton, J.E. Economics of the Mineral Industries (1992), in: H.L. Hartmann (Ed.). SME Mining Engineering Handbook. Society of Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration. 26 Wagner, M., Huy, D., (2005) “Schafft der Strukturwandel in der Nachfrage eine neue Dimension für die Weltrohstoffmärkte ? [Does the Structural change in demand accomplish a new dimension to the world raw material markets?]“, Bundesanstalt für Wissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Commodity Top News, No. 24, 5 p., https://www.bgr.bund.de/DE/Gemeinsames/Produkte/Downloads/Commodity_Top_News/Rohstoffwirtschaft/ 24_weltrohstoffmaerkte.pdf, accessed 19.05.17. 27 European Commission, “Report on the Critical Raw Materials for the EU. Report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Defining Critical Raw Materials.” 28 James Wellstead, ‘Remaking China’s Phosphate Industry,’ Business Insider, n.d., http://www.businessinsider.com/remaking-chinas-phosphate-industry-2012-5. 29 Handfield, Robert. ‘The Global Phosphate Supply Market: Risky and Getting Riskier.’ Supply Chain View from the Field, April 24, 2012. http://scm.ncsu.edu/ blog/2012/04/24/the-global-phosphate-supply-market-risky-and-getting-riskier/
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preparation for a greater market share in the future30. Another example is given by PGMs where five
companies (Anglo Platinum, Norilsk Nickel, Implats, Lonmin and Inco) control most of the supply31.
Primary supply of platinum is concentrated in South Africa (75% of production, 88% of reserve base)32.
Table 1 : Percentage of primary supply of CRMs from most significant producing countries33.
Such oligopoly/monopoly tendencies in the CRM market involves a high supply risk, and export taxes
have shown that they can become a substantial market disruptive factor. Export restrictions include
quantitative export restrictions (quotas), export taxes, duties and charges and mandatory minimum
export prices. In so far as they can affect export volumes, the reduction of VAT rebates as well as
stringent export licensing requirements may also be considered forms of export restrictions. One of
the most used forms of export restrictions is export taxes or duties.
Export licensing requirements regulate which exporters can effectively sell their products abroad. In
the case where licensing requirements are particularly stringent, procedures are complex or costly, or
the number of exporters accorded licenses is small, license requirements may affect the volume of
exports. Another less obvious form of export restriction is the reduction of VAT rebates. If, in a given
country, exporters receive a full rebate on VAT for their traded products, with the exception of some
targeted products, the volume of exports of those products may be affected. Producers may choose
30 de Ridder et al. (2012): Risks and Opportunities in the Global Phosphate Rock Market, http://www.phosphorusplatform.eu/images/download/HCSS_17_12_12_Phosphate.pdf 31 C. Hagelüken, "Materials Flow of Platinum Group Metals," Umicore, Oko Institut, GFMS2005 32 U.S.G.S., "Minerals commodity summaries," U.S. Department of the Interior, 2005. 33 Chapman, A., Arendorf, J., Castella, T., Thompson, P., Willis, P., Tercero Espinoza, L., Klug, S., Wichmann, E. (2013) “Study on Critical Raw Materials at EU Level - Final Report”, Report for the EC DG Enterprise and Industry, 166 p.
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to supply more products to domestic markets and export products that are further downstream (or
upstream) in the production chain so as not to be penalized for exporting non-rebated products.
As seen in Table 1, a few countries have the major share in their production. Apart from geological,
technological and economic factors, policies such as export taxes have impacts on the global market.
For example, if a country introduces an export tax (when it has a major share in the market), depending
on the price elasticities of demand and supply, then in general the international market price of the
commodity will increase. On the other hand, if the country is not a major producer and the country
imposes an export tax on a commodity, the international market prices remain the same (are stable),
while the domestic price in the respective country will rise. In effect, the producers and consumers
within the country must bear the full cost of the export tax, while in the case of the major producer,
they can shift the cost of the export tax to the international market (which increases the international
market price). In general, taxes can help increase government revenue and economic welfare for a
country that is a major producer, but too high taxes can also have negative effects for the country34.
An important specificity of CRMs lies in that many are not made available as crude raw materials, but
in refined – often alloyed – products, with specifications aimed for certain industry products. For
instance, in the case of beryllium, the EU entirely depends on imports of processed and semi-finished
products, mainly under the form of beryllium master alloys and alloys and beryllium metal. The
European industry uses these processed materials to manufacture finished products. However, others
are provided in the form of (imported or domestically produced) ores and concentrates (e.g. tungsten).
Another particular feature of CRMs is that while some are extracted as the primary extraction target
of a mine or quarry operation (borates, chromium, coking coal, fluorspar, magnesite, tungsten,
phosphate rock, silicon metal), others (cobalt, gallium, germanium, indium, rare earth elements) are
extracted as by-products35 of minor importance in economic terms, i.e. as a companion metal to
another carrier (or host) element (or metal). The latter occurs because CRMs are geologically closely
connected to certain major metal deposits, and their extraction depends heavily on the host metal.
For instance, gallium (Ga) occurs in very small concentrations in ores of other metals and most gallium
production results from processing bauxite and zinc ores (it is estimated that 90% of gallium is obtained
from alumina; the remaining amount is produced from zinc processing36), so the relative market supply
is generally governed by the respective health of these commodity markets (bauxite and zinc). There
are no significant economic occurrences which allow for mining companies to focus on production of
this metal alone. Other typical examples are germanium (Ge) and indium which are typically associated
with lead-zinc ores or cobalt and PGMs which are found together with nickel (Figure 4).
These by-products metals (Ge, Ga, Se, Te, In) are found in the ores of major (carrier) metals at ppm
level. The metal linkages wheel (Figure 5) shows a more comprehensive view on the interdependencies
between carrier metals and by-products (including CRMs). Such interdependencies indicate that
34 Suranovic S. M. (2004): International Trade Theory and Policy - Chapter 90-23 35 Some CRMs like PGMs are often called co-products (and not by-products) as they are co-elements of carrier metals who have their own production infrastructure. Yet, to simplify matters, we call all minor metals produced with carrier metals by-products as the only CRM who qualifies as co-product are PGMs (other materials often termed co-products are gold, silver, molybdenum, lead and zinc, see wheel of metal linkages in Figure 5). 36 Zhao et al. (2012), Recovery of gallium from Bayer liquor: A review. Hydrometallurgy 125–126 (2012) 115–124
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providing incentives for the extraction of carrier metals may at the same time promote the extraction
of CRMs in some cases (and if the proper condition are met), so their mining in Europe could contribute
to increasing the CRM primary production.
Figure 4: Selected CRMs as by-products of target metals37.
Figure 5: Metal linkages wheel38.
The market dynamics and economics of production of by-products are often quite different to primary
products, since their production is largely driven by demand for the primary metal. Their production
as minor components of much larger principal metals means that they may have only a negligible
37 Hagelüken & Meskers (2009) “Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals”, in: Graedel, T.E., van der Voet, E. [Eds.] Linkages of Sustainability, 163–97, The MIT Press Scholarship Online, http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.7551/mitpress/ 9780262013581.001.0001/upso-9780262013581-chapter-10, accessed 17.05.17. 38 Reuter, The Metrics of Material and Metal Ecology.
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impact on the profits of diversified miners. Consequently many producers of the principal metals may
consider them ‘non-core’39 to their business practice. Moreover, prices as formed in non-transparent
ways (as explained further below). For these reasons price volatility is often much greater for by-
products than for base metals. Furthermore, many of CRMs produced as by-products are highly reliant
on a single application, for example indium in flat panel displays or rhodium in auto catalysts. This
therefore can make these metals vulnerable to technological change, which can induce substitution,
particularly if their prices become expensive relative to potential alternative materials40.
Other features of CRM markets are specified below. Some are shared by various minerals (such as the
price negotiated in long-term contracts) while others are specific of some mineral:
• Risk of supply disruption by export restrictions: this is a characteristic shared by all minerals
which have been assessed as ‘critical’ by the EU. An example is here given for natural graphite:
the majority of the world’s medium flake graphite – used in variety of applications from
refractories and lubricants to lithium-ion batteries – comes from Heilongjiang. The EU depends
on imports for 95% of its consumption and approximately half of EU imports of graphite come
from China. Beginning in 2011, China imposed a set of export restrictions, including export duties
and export quotas that limit access to these products for companies outside China. These
measures have distorted the market and favoured Chinese industry at the expense of companies
and consumers in the EU, in violation of general WTO rules and of China's specific commitments
from the time of its accession to the WTO.
• Opaque price formation: in contrast to metals like copper or gold whose prices are formed by an
open trade in metal exchanges41, the forming of prices of many CRMs such as beryllium, gallium,
niobium, ruthenium (a PGM), REE or tungsten are established by agreements between private
parties (producers and refiners/users). Therefore, bilateral and long-term contracts between
buyers and sellers (usually confidential) play an important role and lead towards a stable pricing
environment. In some cases, the price is formed mainly by one stakeholder, e.g. in the case of
ruthenium, Johnson Matthey is the main fixer of the ruthenium price, publishing daily prices from
its trading desks in the USA, Hong Kong and the UK 42. In the case of REE, current REE-prices do
not just reflect supply and demand, but are to a significant extent subsidized and controlled
by the Chinese government through industrial policy43.
• Demand linked with the manufacturing of electronic equipments: this is the case for berillyum
(electronic and tele-communications equipment), cobalt (batteries), gallium (LEDs, integrated
circuits), indium (flat panel displays) and silicon (microchips). As an example, gallium´s end-use
is tied to the manufacture of flat screens, LEDs and many other electronic devices, a key
sensitivity to their demand is the growth within specific sectors of the electronics industry. Much
of the expansion in world gallium primary production capacity over the past few years has taken
place in China, with Chinese capacity more than quadrupling between 2009 and 2011.
39 Chapman et al., “Study on Critical Raw Materials at EU Level. Final Report.” 40 Chapman et al. 41 On the spot prices, typically lower than the long-term contract price and the price for certified conflict-free material comes with an additional premium 42 Deloitte et al., “Study on the Review of the List of Critical Raw Materials. Critical Raw Materials Factsheets.” 43 GEUS and D’Apolonia, “Road Map for REE Material Supply Autonomy in Europe.”
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• Price fluctuation linked to oil crude prices: The production of gallium is an extremely energy-
intensive process and so the price of a barrel of crude oil can be used as a proxy for energy input
costs generally. If a correlation is done for the nominal prices of oil and gallium for the period
2006-2014 (using price data by the USGS), results show a close correlation.
• Implications on climate change due to GHG emissions: besides the obvious case of coking coal,
the production of other CRMs is also of concern due to the highly energy-intensive profiles which
may become a daunting issue in areas where energy production is based on the burning of fossil
fuels releasing GHG emissions. This is a problem in the case of PGMs due to the preponderance
of South Africa as a source country whose electricity is mostly produced out of coal. A recently
published study44 shows that “… the reason for the high impact from power consumption is a
combination of the high electricity demand in the mines and concentrators and the composition
of the South African power grid mix where more than 90% of electricity is produced from the
combustion of hard coal”. A similar problem occurs with ferrochromium production which is
mostly sourced also from South Africa.
• Illegal mining, illegal trade and child labour: this is a concern especially in China for REE as prices
and supply are affected by a significant illegal REE-supply. Child labour is an issue of concern for
cobalt mine extraction in the DRC.
3.2 EUROPEAN CRM CONSUMPTION AND AVAILABILITY
Assuming the European demand will follow the global trend of a high demand for minerals, one can
expect that Europe´s demand for CRMs will either remain stable or grow. Private consumers and the
developed industry (downstream market) in the EU are significant world consumers of CRMs: rates
for individual CRMs ranged between 7% and 25% of the 2012 world consumption (Figure 6).
An increasing demand of CRMs needs to be met by a sustained supply. However, domestic production
in the EU Member States is low. From the 20 identified CRMs, 12 are produced in EU Member States
(in upstream industries producing CRMs) either as primary mine production, or by-products from
mineral processing and refining, or via recycling. Yet, the share of the global CRM supply covered by
CRMs produced in Europe is low, ranging between 0% and 17% (highest value for gallium, see Figure
7). In 2015, gallium was produced mainly in Germany (15%) followed by Hungary (2%)45 whereas
germanium was produced only in Finland (16.3%). Silicon metal was produced mainly in France (6%),
followed by Germany and Spain (both around 2%) whereas for magnesite the main producer was
Slovakia (3.3%), followed by Austria (2.6%), Spain (1.7%) and Greece (1.4%). Indium was refined
mainly in France (5.4%) followed by Belgium. Tungsten was primarily extracted in Austria (1%),
followed by Spain (0.9%), Portugal (0.5%), and the United Kingdom (0.2%) whereas fluorspar was
extracted in Spain (ca. 2%), the UK and Germany. Chromium was mostly extracted in Finland (3.4%)
and coking coal in Poland (1.1%), followed by Czech Republic and Germany.
44 Bossi and Gediga, “The Environmental Profile of Platinum Group Metals.” 45 Gunn, G. (ed.) (2014): Critical Metals Handbook. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons
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Figure 6: Estimated European share (in %) of world consumption of CRMs in 2012.
Source: data based on industry & research associations reports for individual CRMs46.
Figure 7: Total EU share in world production (2015)47
46 European Commission (2014) “Report on Critical Raw materials for the EU”, Critical Raw Materials Profiles, p. 21f., http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/11911/ attachments/1/translations/en/renditions/pdf, accessed 17.05.17. 47 Reichl, Schatz, and Zsak, “World Mining Data. Welt Bergbau Daten.”; USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2017: U.S.Geological Survey. (USGS MCS only for indium figures)
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Cobalt mine production in the EU is small and takes place only in Finland as a by-product of nickel or
copper mining. Cobalt is refined in Finland (Freeport Kokkola), Belgium (Umicore) and France
(Eramet). Likewise, there is some very marginal production of phosphate rock in Finland, of PGMs in
Finland (e.g. the Kevitsa nickel-copper mine in northern Finland is producing PGM -platinum and
palladium- as a by-product of Ni and Cu production) and Poland and of natural graphite in Germany
and Austria (although Norway was a more important producer with 8000 metric tonnes in 2015 but
still negligible at a global scale, i.e. 0.7% of the world´s production).
Antimony, beryllium, borates, magnesium (metal), natural graphite, niobium and both, light and
heavy REE are among the seven CRMs that are not currently being produced in any EU Member State
and their supply is, therefore, 100% dependent on imports48.
As previously mentioned, there is mineral potential in the EU to further explore for and develop
known CRM-hosting deposits. EuroGeoSurveys published a map of CRM deposits in Europe that
illustrates the distribution of mineral potential in individual EU member states49 (see Figure 8).
Figure 8: Synthetic overview of the map of critical raw material deposits in Europe50
48 Some natural graphite production has been recorded some years ago at the Kaisersberg mine in Austria, the Kropfmüh mine in Germany, and the Woxna Mine in Sweden but production was very low, i.e. almost negligible at a EU level scale. 49 Bertrand G, Cassard D, Arvanitidis N, Stanley G (2016) Map of Critical Raw Material Deposits in Europe. Energy Procedia 97:44-50. doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2016.10.016 50 EuroGeoSurveys (2016) “New Map of Critical Raw Materials in Europe”, http://egsnews.eurogeosurveys.org/?p=668.
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As such figure shows there exist many known deposits of CRMs scattered around the EU for all CRMs.
For those, there are several exploration prospects underway in the EU and beyond such as the Norra
Kärr heavy REE deposit, cobalt projects in Finland (Kontio) and Sweden (Vena), the Matamulas REE
project in Castilla la Mancha, Almonty Industries (Spain, tungsten). In Serbia, Rio Tinto is planning to
develop a mine at the Jadar lithium-boron deposit51 and the company Erin Ventures also plans to look
for boron at the Piskanja deposit52. In the UK Drakelands Mine started producing at Hemerdon tin-
tungsten deposit in 201653. Further descriptions of upstream/downstream European companies in the
CRM value chain are listed in the Annexes of D7.2.
There are also resources available in non-EU countries: Turkey is a large producer and is also a
significant exporter to the EU of antimony, borates, chromium, graphite, and magnesite, Albania has
chromium mines, Serbia is a producer of magnesium, Norway produces natural graphite and has
cobalt and niobium deposits, Ukraine has coking coal, fluorite and natural graphite deposits, and the
disputed territory of Western Sahara holds the world largest resources of phosphate rock.
51 Rio Tinto (2017) Jadar. In: Rio Tinto. http://www.riotinto.com/energyandminerals/jadar-4643.aspx. Accessed 03 Aug. 2017 52 Erin Ventures (2017) Properties: Piskanja. In: Erin Ventures Inc. http://www.erinventures.com/properties/serbia_piskanja.php. Accessed 04 Aug. 2017 53 Wolf Minerals Limited (2017) Annual Report to Shareholders for Year Ending June 2017. http://www.wolfminerals.com.au/irm/PDF/2307_0/2017AnnualReporttoShareholders. Accessed 12 Oct. 2017
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4 RMI 1ST PILLAR - POLICY AND BUSINESS ISSUES AROUND CRMS
A fair and sustainable supply of CRMs to Europe remains an elusive target undermined by supply risks,
price fluctuations and trade barriers (such as export restrictions), illegal trade, a continuos supply of
conflict minerals, among other issues already discussed in the previous chapter. In this section an
overview is provided on the different strategies companies and the EC are implementing towards a
sustained and sustainable supply from global markets.
4.1 BUSINESS STRATEGIES BY COMPANIES
Given the various factors affecting a sustainable supply of CRMs, companies have developed different
strategies which allow them to maintain a continuos supply. Main strategies involve diversifying their
supply chain, acquiring stakes in mines producing the raw materials, negotiate long-term supply
contracts, move their production closer to the metal supply, and to pursue alliances and strategic
partnerships and positions in firms that trade metals, extract or recycle them, thus ensuring access to
mined metals or valuable metal scrap 54. Some examples are:
• The German ‘Allianz zur Rohstoffsicherung’ (2012): founding partners were the companies Aurubis,
Stahl-Holding-Saar, Thyssen-Krupp und Wacker Chemie; the aim of the alliance was to build up
participations in raw materials projects, primarily abroad, to ensure the supply of such materials to
the German industry55;
• Long-term supply contract between MMC Norilsk Nickel (a Russian company) and BASF for the
purchase of PGMs (2014);
• Exclusive supply agreement for REE between the Thyssen Krupp AG and the Tantalus Rare Earths
AG (2015)56;
• Off-take agreement between the Thyssen Krupp AG and NioCorp for the supply of niobium (2014);
• Australian-headquartered Wolf Minerals Ltd. commissioned the Drakelands tungsten-tin mine at
Hemerdon in Devon, UK, in 2015. Nearly all mine output from Drakelands is exported; Wolf has
offtake agreements with Global Tungsten & Powders of the USA and Wolfram Bergbau in Austria
that account for 80% of mine output57;
• Freeport's Kokkola cobalt refinery in Finland is a major producer of cobalt chemicals and it is the
world´s second largest cobalt refining facility. The refinery was acquired from the OM Groupin 2013
by a consortium led by Freeport-McMoRan and including Tenke Fungurume Mining, Lundin Mining
Corp., and Gecamines. It now operates as Freeport Cobalt. This group also has a large ownership
54 van der Stappen, R. (2013) “Raw Materials in the Industrial Value Chain. An Overview”, Brussels: European Round Table of Industrialists, 36 p., http://www.ert.eu/sites/ert/files/generated/files/document/raw_materials_in_the_industrial_value_chain_-_january_2013.pdf, accessed 19.05.17. 55 However, the ‘Allianz’ does not exist anymore. 56 Under the agreement, ThyssenKrupp would buy 30% of the yearly output of mixed REO produced at Tantalus’s flagship TRE project, in Madagascar. http://www.thyssenkrupp-materials-services.com/en/press/press-releases/2015-05-13-thyssenkrupp-concludes-exclusive-supply-agreement-for-rare-earth-elements, accessed 16.03.17. 57 Roskill Information Services Ltd. (2017) “Tungsten market looks to rebalance in 2017”, Press release, 19.01.2017, https://roskill.com/news/tungsten-market-looks-rebalance-2017/, accessed 19.05.17.
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stake and operates the Tenke Fungurume Mine in the DRC. This provides the Kokkola facility with
a steady supply of cobalt concentrate58.
In the REE business research shows the main players in the European REE sector are part of globally
connected value chains in which they negotiate their REE-product input and prices with (vertically
integrated) subsidiaries, including from within China, i.e. they secure access to raw materials in China
via subsidiaries 59.
The industry and its associated members are also very active under the multiple initiatives framed
under the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials (EIP-RM), illustrated in Table 4 (list of
H2020 projects) and Table 5 (both in Annex 3).
4.2 EU RAW MATERIALS DIPLOMACY AND TRADE POLICIES
The EU´s Raw Materials Diplomacy actions are structured around strategic partnerships (frameworks
of cooperation bilaterally, regionally or multilaterally) and policy dialogues60 with relevant mineral
exporting countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Greenland, Japan,
Mexico, Peru, the USA, Uruguay, the EuroMed countries, and the African Union61. Policy dialogues
tackle raw materials production, trade, and recycling, as well as the criticality of raw materials62.
Concerning CRMs, apart from the EU-USA-Japan trilateral conference series which, to some extent,
focuses on CRMs63, at present the EU does not have an intention to establish specific CRM-focused
dialogues. The CRM aspects are integrated in the overall raw materials international activities.
The international raw materials markets should ideally operate in a free and transparent way.
However, as previously mentioned, this is often not the case, e.g. for various CRMs where prices are
not transparently formed. Many non-EU countries have already applied interventionist policies – such
as export taxes, import duties, price-fixing, and restrictive investment rules – which distort raw
material markets and have a negative impact on manufacturing in the EU. To avoid these impediments
and minimise their effect on its manufacturing industries, the EU Trade policy is committed to ensuring
that international raw materials markets operate in a free and transparent way64.
The trade-related raw material policy commitments of the RMI have been implemented through
inclusion of rules in agreements to achieve a sustainable supply of raw materials at multilateral and
bilateral level, including addressing provisions on export restrictions in WTO accession negotiations.
The EU has also sought to integrate such provisions in bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs),
58 https://www.thebalance.com/the-10-biggest-cobalt-producers-2014-2339726 accessed 16.03.17 59 GEUS and D’Apolonia, “Road Map for REE Material Supply Autonomy in Europe.” 60 European Commission (2017) “Sustainable supply from global markets”, https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/policy-strategy/sustainable-supply-global_en 61 European Commission (2017) “Raw Materials Diplomacy”, https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/specific-interest/international-aspects_en 62 European Commission (2017) “Raw Materials Diplomacy”, DG Growth, https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/specific-interest/international-aspects_en, accessed 12.06.17. 63 One of the conferences was focused on the issue of CRMs 64 European Commission (2017), https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/specific-interest/trade_en
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Partnership and Cooperation Agreements (PCAs) and in regional Economic Partnership Agreements
(EPAs), to secure access to undistorted markets.
Recent FTAs such as the EPA with the South African Development Community are expected to improve
the supply of beryllium, where Mozambique (which ratified the agreement on April 2017) is a
significant beryllium producer. Of importance are on-going deliberations with Turkey and the
Mercosur which could open up a pathway for Brasil´s CRMs. Also of importance were the discussions
around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the United States and Canada,
the most ambitious and strategic trade negotiation that the EU has ever undertaken including areas
such as trade-related aspects of energy and raw materials. Yet, negotiations have been stopped.
An important achievement in 2015 was the launch of the EC´s “Trade for all: Towards a more
Responsible Trade and Investment Policy” strategy with the aims of making trade more transparent,
based on European values and adapted to current issues that affect today´s value chain-based
economy (services, digital trade and the movement of service providers). In relation to CRMs, the
strategy posits (in section 2.1.6 Securing access to energy and raw materials) that the EC will propose
an energy and raw materials chapter in each trade agreement.
The Trade for All strategy is having a first strong impact of FTAs as the EC started to
consider/implement critical raw materials/aspects in trade negotiations. Such strategy established a
common ground for all future FTA (minerals related) actions of the EU (trade policy is a competence
of EU and not of member states). Already the creation of such commitment has created a considerable
positive impact and high expectations in the European raw materials community. So far new
generation agreements have implemented such section via dedicated provisions in the Vietnam and
Ukraine agreements and in all new FTA negotiations65.
Anti-dumping measures
There are many trade defence instruments on imports applied by the EC. In an attempt to combat
unfair trading practices and protect European producers of raw materials, the EU deploys anti-
dumping and anti-subsidy measures (anti-subsidy rules) that are used to combat the ‘dumping’66 of
materials on the EU market. The EU is committed to investigate dumping claims when:
• there is dumping suspected by the exporting producers in the country/countries concerned
• a materials industry in the EU is suffering injuries
• there is a causal link between the dumping and injury found; and
• the imposition of measures is not against the EU interest.
In November 2017 the European Parliament passed new anti-dumping rules with new “trade defense
instruments” in order to calculate dumping practices. In force is also the Regulation 2016/1037 on
protection against subsidised imports from countries not members of the EU. In the case of CRMs,
65 http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2017/september/tradoc_156037.pdf (page 8) 66 Dumping occurs when manufacturers from a non-EU country sell goods in the EU below the sales prices in their domestic markets or below the cost of production
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dumping has become a major concern for silicon metal67, e.g. the EC has currently anti-dumping
measures in place against China (ad valorem duty on silicon metal) but has rejected measured in other
cases.
The Dutch firm Thermphos, the EU’s sole producer of white phosphorus, was declared bankrupt on 21
November 2012. Thermphos attributed this to unfair competition by a rival firm in Kazakhstan that
sold white phosphorus on the EU market at a very low price. Thermphos lodged a complaint with the
European Commission in December 2011, which initiated an anti-dumping proceeding. The European
Commission decided to not adopt anti-dumping measures argueing that “the benefit to the Union
industry of the imposition of an anti-dumping duty remains questionable. This is due to the currently
transitional situation of the Union industry and the uncertainty of its future development as well as the
fact that import prices from Kazakhstan may very likely remain significantly below the Union industry’s
sales prices even if anti-dumping measures will be imposed.”68 This case illustrates that an EU firm may
suffer the consequences of actions by a (state-owned) company that also participates in the market
for processed phosphorus products (vertical integration). The allegation of dumping indicates the
potentially significant impact that policies of other states can have on European markets69.
Illegal trade
Ilegal trade is another major issue in the CRM trade and supply for the European industry. As concluded
by a report commissioned by the European Parliament´s Committee on International Trade (2015)70,
little still is known about the magnitude of illegal trade, the trade routes and hubs of CRMs, and the
issue of the share of unfair and illegal trade in the supply of CRMs remains unresolved. According to
such report “evidence suggests that illegal mining operations in China (rare earths) and Ukraine (coal)
are resulting in illegal exports that may be finding their way into the EU”. The report also includes the
case of tungsten and coltan (tantalum) from the DRC.
The previously mentioned report71 analyses in more detail the cases of antimony, germanium, indium,
and magnesite from China. A major incentive for illegal trade is the increasing price of the material (for
example resulting from an introduction of export restrictions) and weak property rights in combination
with a fragmented market e.g. in China. One of the most visible drivers of that illegal trade is the lack
of alternative income opportunities in raw material exporting countries. The report concluded that,
while the application of the WTO agreements provides a straightforward vehicle to offset trade
67 Critical Raw Materials Alliance (CRM Alliance), CRM Alliance Position on Trade Policy, http://criticalrawmaterials.org/download-view/crm-
alliance-position-on-trade-policy/. 68 European Commission (2013) Commission Decision of 13 February 2013 terminating the anti-dumping proceeding concerning imports of white phosphorus, also called elemental or yellow phosphorus, originating in the Republic of Kazakhstan (2013/81/EU), OJ L43/38-L43/58, 14.02.2013, http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2013/february/tradoc_150526.term.en.L43-2013.pdf, accessed 16.03.17. 69 de Ridder et al. (2012) “Risks and Opportunities in the Global Phosphate Rock Market: Robust Strategies in Times of Uncertainty“, Den Haag: The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies Report No. 17|12|12, 96 p., http://www.phosphorusplatform.eu/images/download/HCSS_17_12_12_ Phosphate.pdf, accessed 19.05.17. 70 Schubert et al. (2011) “Study: Trade in commodities, obstacles to trade and illegal trade”, European Parliament, Directorate General for External Policies, Policy Department, Report EP/EXPO/B/INTA/FWC/2013-08/Lot7/09, PE534.996, 40 p., http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/ 534996/EXPO_STU(2015)534996_EN.pdf, accessed 18.04.17 71 Schubert et al. (2011) “Study: Trade in commodities, obstacles to trade and illegal trade”, European Parliament, Directorate General for External Policies, Policy Department, Report EP/EXPO/B/INTA/FWC/2013-08/Lot7/09, PE534.996, 40 p., http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/ 534996/EXPO_STU(2015)534996_EN.pdf, accessed 18.04.17
accessed 12.06.17 73 van der Velde, S. (2017) “The End of Conflict Minerals on the EU Market?”, Asser Institute Policy Brief No. 3, 11 p., http://www.asser.nl/media/3509/policy-paper-asser-institute-the-end-of-conflict-minerals-on-the-eu-market.pdf, accessed 24.03.17. 74 European Parliamen and the Council (2017). REGULATION (EU) 2017/821 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 17 May 2017 laying down supply chain due diligence obligations for Union importers of tin, tantalum and tungsten, their ores, and gold originating from conflict-affected and high-risk areas; http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L:2017:130:FULL&from=EN 75 It should be noted that the regulation does not apply to EU importers who import less than a certain amount, and to recycled metals or stocks created before 1 February 2013. 76 The Commission will produce a 'global list of responsible smelters and refiners' that are deemed to fulfil the requirements of the regulation. The list will include responsible smelters and refiners that apply supply chain due diligence schemes which the European Commission recognises, http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2017/march/tradoc_155423.pdf.
tantalum and tungsten, among others, and the imposition of quantitative restrictions, such as export
quotas, applied to antimony, indium, and magnesia82 during last years. Those measures distorted the
market and favoured Chinese industry at the expense of companies and consumers in the EU, in
violation of general WTO rules and also of China's specific commitments from the time of its accession
to the WTO. The EU was able to launch three legal cases against China´s export policies, from which
two were successfully closed and the third one is under negotiation (see Figure 9).
Figure 9: EU legal actions against Chinese export restrictions and WTO rullings (MinPol,
based on WTO Dispute settlement body cases83
Raw materials subject of the third legal case against China include some CRMs. China’s total exports
of these products are worth around €1.2 billion, one sixth of which goes into Europe. A first analysis
81 European Commission (2017) “Cooperation with governments”, DG Growth, https://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/international-aspects/cooperation-governments_en, accessed 12.06.17. 82 European Commission (2016) “EU takes again legal action against export restrictions on Chinese raw materials”, DG Trade, http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1530, accessed 24.03.17. 83 World Trade Organization´s Dispute settlement body (DSB): dispune n°DS394 “China — Measures Related to the Exportation of Various Raw Materials” https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds394_e.htm ; dispute n° DS431 “China — Measures Related to the Exportation of Rare Earths, Tungsten and Molybdenum” https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds431_e.htm ; dispute n° DS509 “China — Duties and other Measures concerning the Exportation of Certain Raw Materials” https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds509_e.htm, accessed 01.08.17
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grant agreement No 730227
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suggests that removing the export duties imposed by China could allow an additional supply of these
raw materials to the EU economy worth around €19 million, i.e. an increase of 9.2%84. However, the
real increase of China’s supplies to the EU is likely to be much higher, if the other instruments that
China is currently using to restrict its exports were also removed. The profiles of CRM´s with which the
third legal case is concerned are summarised in a press release of the EC from the 19th of July 201685.
4.3.2 EU – USA
Common interests in raw materials issues, as well as strong research and administrative capacity have
resulted in successful co-operations between the EU and the USA (and Japan). In 2011, the EU, Japan,
and the US launched a trilateral dialogue. The EU-USA-Japan Trilateral Critical Materials Initiative86
aims to improve collaboration on extraction, resource efficiency, encouraging recycling, and finding
substitutes for CRMs. On 29 November 2011, the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC), agreed to a
Raw Materials Work Plan, which includes the preparation of a joint inventory of raw materials data,
and analysis of trade, e-waste recycling, and substitution87. Priority areas for co-operation are the
comparison of methodologies and criteria for designation of critical/strategic raw materials, actions
with respect to geological knowledge exchange between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and
European Geological Surveys (EGS) through e.g. data collection, structure, classification systems and
their compatibility with global standards, etc. Also eco-design, recycling, and substitution are agreed
actions building on the EU-US-Japan research cooperation on rare earth materials, as well as exchange
of best practices in mining policies including technologies.
The USA are an important producer and supplier of beryllium to the EU. The EU does not have any
domestic supply of beryllium and approximately 75% of its beryllium supply comes from the USA.
Beryllium is considered ‘strategic’ and ‘critical’ by the U.S. Department of Defense. According to the
Beryllium Science and Technology Association (BeST), there is no free market for this mineral and there
exist technical barriers to trade between the EU and the USA. The main barrier, according to the BeST
is the REACH regulation that restricts beryllium-containing materials in the EU88. BeST proposed that
CRMs should be incorporated in the TTIP89 proposal.
84 European Commission (2016) “EU takes again legal action against export restrictions on Chinese raw materials”, News release, 19.07.2016, http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1530, accessed 10.03.17. 85 European Commission (2016) “EU takes again legal action against export restrictions on Chinese raw materials”, Press release, 19.07.2016, http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-2581_en.htm, accessed 01.08.17. 86 European Commission (2011). Raw Materials Diplomacy - Growth - European Commission. [online] Raw Materials Diplomacy. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/specific-interest/international-aspects [Accessed 19 Oct. 2017]. 87 European Commission (2017) “Raw Materials Diplomacy”, DG Growth, https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/ raw-materials/specific-interest/international-aspects_en, accessed 12.06.17. 88 Beryllium Science & Technology Association (2014) “Technical Barriers to Trade in the Raw Materials Sector in the case of Beryllium”, http://beryllium.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/BeST-TTIP-Presentation-July-2015.pdf, accessed 27.03.17. 89 The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a proposed trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, with the aim of promoting trade and multilateral economic growth. TTIP is considered a companion agreement to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement No 730227
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4.3.3 EU – BRAZIL
The EU is Brazil's first trading partner, accounting for 19.6% of its total trade and its biggest investor
(the EU had 48.5% of its Latin America investments there) 90 . An FTA with the Mercosur group
(Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay plus Venezuela as an observer) is under negotiation. Current
trade relations are still governed by an inter-regional Framework Cooperation Agreement from 199991.
Brazil is the world’s most important niobium producer, accounting for 92% of the world’s supply. No
special bilateral agreement was identified between the EU and Brazil for niobium or any other CRM.
For comparison e.g. Japan and South Korea formed the Niobium Alliance and entered into a bilateral
agreement with the Brazilian niobium company CBMM92.
4.3.4 EU – RUSSIA / KAZAKHSTAN
Since 1997 the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement 93 has been the framework document
regulating and developing harmonious political and economic relations, and promoting a trade and
investment between EU and Russia. The new EU-Russia Agreement will focus on improving the
regulatory environment by building upon the WTO rules (Russia joined in 2012) and strengthening
bilateral trade relations. The negotiations have been stopped in 2012 because no progress could be
made in the trade and investment part. Following Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and its
role in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, the EU imposed restrictive measures, including targeted
economic measures, against Russia. Russia is the world’s second largest producer of platinum, and the
EU´s second source of PGM imports (after South Africa). In spite this, no special trade agreements on
platinum were identified between the EU and Russia.
Kazakhstan is of trade importance for the EU due to its supply of some CRMs: beryllium, chromite and
fluorspar. The EU and Kazakhstan signed an Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation
Agreement (EPCA)94 in Astana on 21 December 2015, which constitutes the first of its kind signed by
the EU with one of its Central Asian partners. The new agreement, once ratified by all Member States
and the European Parliament, will replace the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement in force since
1999. Its provisional application started 1st May 2016.
90 European Commsion (2017). Trade Policy- Countries and regions/Brazil http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/brazil/ 91 Treaties Office (2000). Interregional Framework Cooperation Agreement between the European Community and its Member States. [online] Ec.europa.eu. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/world/agreements/prepareCreateTreatiesWorkspace/treatiesGeneralData.do?step=0&redirect=true&treatyId=405 [Accessed 19 Oct. 2017]. 92 JOGMEC (2011) “JFE Steel, Nippon Steel, Sojitz, JOGMEC, POSCO and NPS Form Japan-Korea Partnership Group to Invest in Brazilian Producer of Niobium, Critical Alloying Element for High-Grade Steel Products“, Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation Press Release, 04.03.2011, 4p., http://www.jogmec.go.jp/english/news/release/content/300062591.pdf, accessed 20.03.17. 93 EEAS (2009). Delegation of European Union to Russia. [online] European Union - EEAS (European External Action Service) | Legal framework. Available at: http://www.eeas.europa.eu/archives/delegations/russia/eu_russia/political_relations/legal_framework/index_en.htm [Accessed 19 Oct. 2017]. 94 EEAS (2017). Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Kazakhstan - EEAS - European External Action Service - European Commission. [online] EEAS - European External Action Service. Available at: https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/18499/enhanced-partnership-and-cooperation-agreement-between-european-union-and-republic-kazakhstan_en [Accessed 19 Oct. 2017].
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement No 730227
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4.3.5 EU – SOUTH AFRICA AND THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
South Africa's trade relations and development co-operation with the European Union are currently
governed by the Trade, Development and Co-operation Agreement (TDCA) 95 . The TDCA has
established a free trade area that covers 90% of bilateral trade between the EU and South Africa. The
liberalisation schedules were completed by 2012. In June 2016, South Africa signed the EU – Southern
African Development Community Economic Partnership Agreement (EU-SADC EPA) together with five
other southern African countries. Once ratified, the EPA will replace the TDCA96. With regard to CRMs,
South Africa is an important producer of chromium and PGMs. Chromium is the second-least
substitutable material (after phosphate), an estimated 80% of remaining world resources are located
in South Africa and about 80% of the EU imports are derived from South Africa.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is an important trade partner for the EU as a supplier of cobalt
(for over 50% of the global cobalt mine production), which is mainly produced as a by-product from
copper and nickel mining. Concerning other CRMs, the country also produces niobium and tantalum.
As a Least-Developed Country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, benefits from duty-free and quota-
free EU access under the EU "Everything but Arms" scheme.97
´Conflict minerals´ in the DRC
A report in 2015 by the OECD98 on “five years of implementation of supply chain due diligence” in the
DRC, supported by the ‘Instrument for Stability of the EU’99 states that “Significant gains have been
made in raising the volume of responsible 3T (tin, tantalum, tungsten) minerals produced in eastern
DRC, though criminal networks within the DRC’s public security forces (FARDC) – and to a lesser extent
non-state armed groups – continue to benefit from 3T production and trade in a number of localities”.
Cobalt is not in the scope of the ´conflict minerals´ regulation (EU 2017/821). However, there is a lack
of a fair and sustainable supply. A recent report by the Good Electronics Network 100 claims that that
foreign cobalt mining companies “are involved in labour rights violations” and companies using cobalt
from the DRC in their products have failed to conduct adequate human rights due diligence on their
cobalt supply chains, i.e. they are still unable to determine from which mines their cobalt originates,
making it impossible for them to identify and address human rights risks in those mines. The report
states that most of the people, especially in artisanal or small-scale mining, including women and
children, are working in very hard environmental conditions and suffering unjust mining practices.
95 European Commisssion (2004). Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA). [online] Eur-lex.europa.eu. Available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM:r12201 [Accessed 18 Oct. 2017]. 96 The dti (2016). Economic Partnership Agreement between the SADC EPA states, of the one part, and the European Union and its Member states, of the other part. https://www.thedti.gov.za/trade_investment/trade.jsp, accessed 11.05.17. 97 European Commission (2012). Everything but arms - Trade - European Commission. [online] Ec.europa.eu. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/import-and-export-rules/import-into-eu/gsp-rules/everything-but-arms/ [Accessed 18 Oct. 2017]. 98 OECD (2015). MINERAL SUPPLY CHAINS AND CONFLICT LINKS IN EASTERN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Five years of implementing supply
chain due diligence, Available at: https://mneguidelines.oecd.org/Mineral-Supply-Chains-DRC-Due-Diligence-Report.pdf. 99 The IcSP is an EU instrument to support security initiatives and peace-building activities in partner countries. http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/fpi/what-we-do/instrument_contributing_to_stability_and_peace_en.htm 100 SOMO (2016) “Responsible Mining – Cobalt”,Factsheet, 4p., Amsterdam: GoodElectronics Network, https://www.somo.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Cobalt.pdf, accessed 24.03.17.
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grant agreement No 730227
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4.3.6 EU – MOROCCO / TURKEY
Morocco is the biggest exporter of phosphates to the EU, covering around 33% of all imports. Morocco
and the Western Sahara will be an important long-term supplier due to the fact they together host
over 73% of the global reserves of phosphate rock101. Under their Association Agreement102 of 2000,
the EU and Morocco established a Free Trade Area liberalising two-way trade in goods. Negotiations
for a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area between the EU and Morocco were launched on 1
March 2013. However, no trade agreements specific on the issue of phosphate rock have been
identified.
Turkey has the world largest reserves of boron (and also the largest world producer) and significant
chromite and magnesium reserves and is by far the most important supplier of natural borates to the
EU. World supply of boron is dominated by two companies, Rio Tinto Borax and Eti Maden. Eti Maden
is a Turkish State Economic Enterprise (SEE), producing borate minerals and refined products from its
four mines in western Turkey103. Turkey can also provide magnesium to the EU: the ESAN Magnesium
Smelter is the only primary magnesium metal producer in Turkey.The smelter produces magnesium
ingots in three different purity grades and alloys by the Pidgeon process allowing purified magnesium
production from dolomite. The dolomite is supplied by ESAN’s own mine and has reserves for
production for 100 years104. The EU and Turkey are linked by a Customs Union Agreement from 1995.
Despite political tensions, the EU has recently aimed for an expansion of its customs union agreement
with Turkey 105 that covers all industrial goods. Turkey has been a candidate country to join the
European Union since 1999, and is a member of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. No specific
bilateral agreements were identified concerning the supply of natural borates.
4.3.7 EU DIALOGUES WITH POTENTIAL TO ADDRESS CRM ISSUES
Given the importance of China as a CRM supplier to the EU, the on-going dialogue between DG GROW
and the Chinese MIIT, particularly the working group on raw materials, carries strong potential to steer
discussions towards trade agreements focused on CRMs. The agenda in this dialogue could potentially
focus on three main issues: 1) How to agree on a bilateral mechanism to avoid future potential
disruptions of the CRM supply ensuring a stable and affordable CRM supply to European countries; 2)
How to cooperate to reduce illegal CRM exports from China; and 3) Cooperation on technology
innovations focused on REE (e.g. substitution and circular economy issues) (China is the global centre
of research for rare earth science and technology).
101 Jasinski (2017) “Phosphate Rocks“, USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, p. 124-125, https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/ phosphate_rock/mcs-2017-phosp.pdf, accessed 27.03.17. 102 EEAS (2016). Morocco and the EU - EEAS - European External Action Service - European Commission. [online] EEAS - European External Action Service. Available at: https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage_en/4347/Morocco%20and%20the%20EU [Accessed 19 Oct. 2017]. 103 Eti MADEN (2016), “ETi MADEN and the Borates industry”, presentation Industrial Minerals International Congress and Exhibition 2016, Prague, 13-15.06.2016, http://www.indmin.com/events/download.ashx/document/speaker/8915/a0ID000000Zwr1bMAB/Presentation, ,accessed 24.03.17. 104 Esan (no year) “Magnesium, Metal of the Future”, http://www.esanmagnezyum.com/en/index.html, accessed 17.05.17. 105 European Parliament Think Tank (2017). Reinvigorating EU-Turkey bilateral trade: Upgrading the customs union - Think Tank. [online] Europarl.europa.eu. Available at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_BRI(2017)599319 [Accessed 18 Oct. 2017].
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement No 730227
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5 RMI 2ND PILLAR - POLICY AND BUSINESS ISSUES AROUND CRMS
5.1 ISSUES ON UP AND DOWNSTREAM MINERAL DEVELOPMENTS
5.1.1 PROSPECTION/EXPLORATION STAGE
In an international perspective, Europe does not figure among the top destinations for investments in
exploration. According to SNL´s report on global exploration trends for 2016, Europe accounted for a
5% of the global exploration expending on non-ferrous metals106. According to a review by the USGS
in 2016 107 , European mineral exploration focused on base metals (26%), precious metals (38%),
tungsten (9%), iron ore (3%) and other minerals (24%). The EU share of global exploration expenditure
has been low for the last decades and the uptick in budgets that occurred during the commodity price
boom was largely seen for regions other than the EU. EU-headquartered companies have allocated
only 13% of their exploration budget to exploration in Europe, a low figure in comparison to China, the
USA or Australia who have devoted 70%, 42% and 56% respectively to domestic exploration108.
As a result, a part of the exploration in Europe is in the hands of non-European companies. For instance,
currently ca. 58% of exploration companies operating in Greenland are Canadian or Australian
companies, with the share of EU companies operating in Greenland at only 15% (Denmark, Germany,
Czech Republic and United Kingdom)109. Although of the four exploitation licences, three are European,
the European companies have a low involvement in on-going exploration activities and own only a few
exploration licences (with most licences owned by UK, Germany and Denmark). To attempt to change
such situation, in 2012, the European Environment Agency concluded an agreement of cooperation
with Greenland110 given Greenland´s strong potential for various CRMs (niobium, PGMs, REE), with a
special known high potential for REE. As communicated by the EC111, it is considered likely, that
Greenland has the ability to become a mid-size supplier in a REE market dominated by larger players.
The agreement seeks to increase the exploration by European companies.
Which are the major issues stopping exploration in Europe? Those include:
- Lack of national mineral policy encouraging exploration
- No stable mining legislation and inefficient (not streamlined) permitting
- Insufficient availability of venture (risk) capital
- Land available for exploration (identified as a key issue in the MINEX Forum´s 2015 Survey)
106 The SNL report includes Turkey as a part of Europe, stating that the country was a leading attractor of exploration budgets in Europe. See SNL Metals & Mining (2016) “World Exploration Trends 2016“, A Special Report from SNL Metals & Mining for the PDAC International Convention”, http://www.mch.cl/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2016/04/Reporte-SNL-WET-2016_ingles.pdf, accessed 19.05.17. 107 Wilburn & Karl (2016) “Exploration Review”, https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/mflow/exploration-2015.pdf, accessed 14.03.17. 108 Fergusson et al., “Locating the European Union in Mineral Exploration Expenditure Budgets.”, http://eurogeologists.eu/european-geologist-journal-42-fostering-the-mining-potential-of-the-european-union/ 109 http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-600_en.htm accessed 16.03.17. 110 European Environmental Agency (2010). Cooperation agreement between the Government of Greenland and the European Environment Agency. [online] European Environment Agency. Available at: https://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/eea-to-enhance-cooperation-with-greenland/cooperation-agreement-between-the-government/view [Accessed 18 Oct. 2017]. 111 European Commission (2012) “European Commission signs today agreement of cooperation with Greenland on raw materials”, European Commission Press Release, 13.06.2012, http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-600_en.htm, accessed 16.03.17.
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grant agreement No 730227
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- Environmental and social constraints (cp. REE-deposit / Tasmann case)
- Issue of societal awareness about the importance of minerals
Even though Europe may not be a preferred destination for exploration, there are some companies
that are investing in (mostly brownfield) exploration for CRM, for instance the following:
• Lasseladen project in Norway (fluorspar)
• Norra Kärr project in Sweden (heavy REE, now involved in the H2020 EURARE project)
• Kontio project in Finland, Dobsina in central Slovakia (cobalt)
• Early stage exploration in northern Ireland by Lonmin company (PGMs)
• Morille project in north-west Spain, tabuaco project in Portugal (tungsten)
At the policy level, some H2020-funded projects are working to improve the framework conditions
adversely influencing exploration investments. The on-going MINATURA2020 project
(www.minatura2020.eu) is working on enabling access to land for exploration (and potentially for
extraction) via safeguarding of known primary mineral deposits and areas with promising exploration
results (and/or hypothetical or speculative resources, i.e. where geological information indicates that
there are chances of discovering a mineral deposit) of public importance. The now starting MINLAND
project will follow-up on MINATURA2020´s legacy and focus more on the safeguarding of mineral
deposits hosting CRMs.
Some European countries rank high in terms of mineral investments, especially Finland, Sweden and
Ireland, but also Portugal, as evidenced in the 2016 Fraser report112. Access to finance has been
mentioned as one cause of delay in the advance of some projects e.g. Norra Kärr REE.
5.1.2 EXTRACTION/BENEFICIATION STAGE
Despite Europe´s considerable known mineral potential (compare Section 3.2), there exist various
issues which keep hampering mineral development investments in Europe. According to the MINEX
Forum 2015 Survey 113 , the main five issues affecting the mining business in Europe are mining
legislation and regulation (including permitting issues), accessibility of information, attitudes towards
mining operations (related to social and environmental impacts), geological prospectivity and
availability of land for exploration. In the specific case of CRMs, demand is also a key issue as the
European demand for products, e.g. REE, may be insufficient to justify the development of one project;
thus, ensuring the possibility of off-take agreements with large demanders (e.g. Chinese companies,
or the agreement between Thyssen Krupp AG and NioCorp for niobium) is of central importance.
Among the major barriers for the mining industry, particularly at the mining and processing stage, we
can mention challenges to already granted permits (e.g. the Norra Kärr case in Sweden), the lack of
high quality environmental studies, as well as a lack of sufficient public acceptance of a project (which
may be related to a lack of sufficient dialogue based on high quality environmental studies). Obtaining
112 Taylor, J, Green, KP (2017). Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies 2016. Fraser Institute. http://www.fraserinstitute.org. 113 Advantix Ltd, “MINEX Europe 2015. Annual European Mining Industry Survey. Results of the Forum Europe: Open for Mining?”
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grant agreement No 730227
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government permits is a necessary, but not sufficient condition to proceed with mining. Experience
shows that without community support, or at least tolerance, a mining project sooner or later will be
challenged by stakeholders. It is now generally accepted that a mining company must strive to obtain
and maintain what is called a ‘Social License to Operate’114 (SLO). This can be a significant challenge
particularly for new entrants into the market115. A SLO is not a formal license, but rather the tacit
agreement that a mining operation will result in a win-win situation for all concerned. The SLO process
also presents opportunities for mining companies. According to Ernst & Young (2014), mining
companies are finding that having the reputation as “a company that does the right thing by all
stakeholders” makes it easier to access new projects and raise capital116. Obtaining the SLO in the first
instance presents a burden to mining companies in the form of costs, but it may pay off in the longer
run. SLO obligations are becoming increasingly expensive because of higher expectations and emphasis
on SLO issues. Costs are rising not only in terms of actual payments, but also in the time and money
involved in developing appropriate agreements. The need to strive for a SLO has an effect on the supply
chain117 as it:
• decreases competition, since some mining companies may choose to withdraw, if the cost of
the SLO initiatives appear to be too high;
• increases thresholds of entry, since SLO initiatives will require additional up-front investments;
To improve the sector´s framework conditions, the EC aims to provide for better legal and regulatory
conditions118. Major EU policies promoting further extraction are framed within the SIP of the EIP-RM.
With such SIP, various projects are seeking different solutions to promote a more efficient,
environmentally friendly and socially accepted extraction, e.g. INTMET, SLIM, MINATURA2020.
5.2 EU POLICY FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS
Securing sustainable supply of raw materials from EU sources is the second pillar of the Raw Materials
Initiative. The Commission's activities under the second pillar of the RMI are well described in the
Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) within the Priority Area “Improving Europe's raw materials
framework conditions”. The aim of the Priority Area is to facilitate the exchange of best practice among
EU countries to improve the sustainable and safe supply of raw materials to the EU economy and
society. The Priority Area has three action areas: 1) Minerals Policy Framework; 2) Access to Mineral
Potential in the EU; and 3) Public Awareness, Acceptance and Trust. The improvement of the raw
material policy framework conditions would foster a stable and competitive supply from EU sources
114 Falck (2016): Social Licensing in Mining - Between Ethical Dilemmas and Economic Risk Management.- Mineral Economics, 29(2): 97-104, DOI: 10.1007/s13563-016-0089-0. 115 Yu (2013) “Strategic analysis for a new entrant into the niobium industry”, Simon Fraser University, http://summit.sfu.ca/item/13679 116 Ernst & Young (2014): Business risks facing mining and metals 2014–2015, http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-Business-risks-facing-mining-and-metals-2014%E2%80%932015/$FILE/EY-Business-risks-facing-mining-and-metals-2014%E2%80%932015.pdf ; cp. Also Ernst & Young (Paul Mitchell) (2014): Productivity in mining - A case for broad transformation, http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-Productivity-in-mining/$FILE/EY-Productivity-in-mining.pdf 117 Ernst & Young (2014): Business risks facing mining and metals 2014–2015, http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-Business-risks-facing-mining-and-metals-2014%E2%80%932015/$FILE/EY-Business-risks-facing-mining-and-metals-2014%E2%80%932015.pdf
118 European Commission (2017) “Sustainable supply of raw materials from EU sources“, DG Growth,
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and facilitate public acceptance, whilst contributing to increased environmental protection. However,
minerals policy and the supply of raw materials fall under the competence of individual EU countries’
jurisdictions. MSs are recommended to establish their mineral (planning) policy frameworks. Some
countries have recently up-dated their national strategies and/or their minerals policies, which will be
further discussed in the SCRREEN Deliverable D7.2.
The industry has frequently claimed that slow, unpredictable and inefficient permitting procedures are
one of the leading causes deterring mineral investments in Europe. In 2015 the EC contracted a study
on the legal framework for mineral extraction and permitting procedures for exploration and
extraction in the EU (under the acronym MINLEX). Results indicate that while the EU´s legal framework
(supported by the EU´s EIP-RM) provides a strong basis for achieving a sustainable supply of raw
materials from European sources, there exist many implementation difficulties among MSs that
prevent the non-energy extractive industry from having a level playing field in the EU´s internal market
and that also undermine permitting procedures119.
The EU is dependent on the imports of many raw materials. Even though the potential for mining and
quarrying in Europe is high, the land area available for extraction is constantly decreasing. To facilitate
the sustainable supply of raw materials from European mineral deposits, the European Commission
aims to provide for the appropriate legal and regulatory conditions120.
1. The definition of a national policy for minerals, to ensure that these resources are exploited in an
economically viable and harmonised manner with other national policies based on sustainability,
including a commitment to create a legal framework and appropriate information;
2. The definition of a planning policy for minerals that includes:
• long-term and regional estimates of minerals demand as well as a
• digital geological database,
• transparent methodology for identifying mineral resources,
• identification and preservation of the minerals resources taking into account other land-uses,
and
3. The development of authorisation procedures for exploring and extracting minerals that are clear
and comprehensible to offer security and to contribute to the simplification of administrative
process.
Stockpiling of CRMs in the EU
In view of the long-lasting stockpiling existing in the USA, Japan and China (e.g. germanium), stockpiling
was considered as one of the options as a safeguard to short-term disruptions in the supply of CRMs
to the EU markets. In the Communication “Tackling the challenges in commodity markets and on raw
materials" (COM(2011)25 Final) the EC announced that it was "ready to examine with Member States
and industry the added value and feasibility of a possible stockpiling programme of raw materials". In
119 MinPol, “Legal Framework for Mineral Extraction and Permitting Procedures for Exploration and Exploitation in the EU. Final Report - Study.” 120 European Commission (2017) “Sustainable supply of raw materials from EU sources”, https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/policy-strategy/sustainable-supply-eu_en
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order to explore the option of stockpiling the EC commissioned in 2011 a study to carry out
a preliminary assessment that analysed different stockpiling practices, including the EU stockpiling
programme for oil, to examine the raw material stockpiling schemes, and to examine the desirability,
feasibility and potential costs and benefits of a stockpiling programme of CRMs121.
Considering those scenarios, the study concluded that the most feasible course of action is a scheme
based on voluntary stocks held by industry. According to a Communication by the EC 122 , the
stakeholders' opinion on stockpiling was much divided. The results of the study discussed above were
discussed with the Commission's Raw Materials Supply Group in November 2012 and the reactions on
the potential stockpiling programme were negative. According to the EC, no Member State would
support a stockpiling scheme for CRMs as a policy option123. Therefore, and as communicated in the
report on the implementation of the RMI (SWD/2014/0171 final), the Commission currently does not
envisage to set up an EU-wide raw material stockpiling system.
5.3 ON EUROSTAT´S CRM COVERAGE
Eurostat statistics do not generally report on the use of individual critical raw materials (CRMs) as
identified for the European Union124. Relevant indicator sets like the resource efficiency scoreboard125,
but also the material flow accounts126, present data on aggregated material use. This is exemplified by
the lead-indicator on resource productivity, which is expressed in Euro of GDP per kg of domestic
material consumption (DMC), which sums all consumed materials, critical or not. Such aggregated data
on the use of materials limits the value for CRM research.
However, some of the Eurostat data could be particularly useful for studying the use of CRMs in parts
of the European supply chain. Data on ore production, raw material trade and wastes of relevant
product groups are available and are discussed below.
To start with, the Eurostat Environmental accounts as described in Eurostat´s website127, consist of a
database on material flows and resource productivity, with a table reference of ‘env_mrp’ and in
particular the Material Flow Accounts referenced under ‘env_ac_mfa’. This dataset set contains
imports exports as well as domestic production data for a wide selection of (grouped) materials,
121 Risk & Policy Analysts Limited (2012), Stockpiling of Non-energy Raw Materials, commissioned by EC DG Enterprise and Industry, https://www.mmta.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/stockpiling-report_EU-DG-Enterprise-and-Industry-Mar-2012.pdf 122 European Commission (2013) “Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the Implementation of the Raw Materials Initiative”, COM(2013) 442 final, 24.06.2013, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52013DC0442&from=EN, accessed 17.05.17. 123 European Commission (2013) “Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the Implementation of the Raw Materials Initiative”, COM(2013) 442 final, 24.06.2013, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52013DC0442&from=EN, accessed 17.05.17. 124 European Commission. (2014). Report on Critical Raw Materials for the EU; Critical Raw Materials Profiles. Brussels. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/11911/attachments/1/translations/en/renditions/native 125 Eurostat. (2017). Europroms. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/prodcom/overview/europroms 126 Eurostat. (2016b). Material flow accounts - flows in raw material equivalents. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Material_flow_accounts_-_flows_in_raw_material_equivalents#Material_flow_indicators_in_RME_compared_to_EW-MFA_indicators 127 Eurostat. (2016a). Environmental accounts - establishing the links between the environment and the economy. Retrieved August 10, 2017, from http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Environmental_accounts_-_establishing_the_links_between_the_environment_and_the_economy
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including some CRMs and their ores, covering multiple years for each EU member state with a good
quality (validation procedures are in place to guarantee consistency & plausibility). Unfortunately, the
material classification does not reach the level of detail required to identify extraction & trade of all
CRMs individually. Most CRMs are listed under aggregate indicators like ‘other non-ferrous metals’ or
‘precious metals’, which again mixes the non-critical materials like silver, in one category with critical
materials like PGMs. Thus, in its current state, it becomes impossible to study the flows of CRMs
individually.
A different part of the supply chain is addressed by the Eurostat Environmental Data Centre on Waste,
which provides an important set of tables related to the generation, management and recycling of
wastes128. Of particular interest are the tables on key waste streams (referenced under env_wasst),
which cover a selection of relevant CMR contained in product groups such as batteries, end-of-life
vehicles and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). For each of these product groups the
database contains details on the annual sales, the weight of the generated wastes as well as the
recycling, thus providing a rather complete view on the three product categories responsible for a large
share of demand & use of CRMs in Europe (see SCRREEN D 2.1 Report on the current use of critical raw
materials).
Finally, the highly detailed production & trade databases like PRODCOM or the combined set of trade
& production statistics in the EUROPROMS database129 could be used as a basis for analysis of the
European CRM use. Potentially, such product-oriented databases could be combined with CRM use &
content like developed in the PROSUM project for example130. Another linkage that could be made is
with the Raw Materials Information System (RMIS) hosted at the JRC131. The RMIS currently combines
data from two main sources, being the background report to the 2014 CRM list and a more recent
report on Raw Material System Analysis132, but the platform will also host the data produced in the
update of the EU CRM list, for which the methodology was recently published133. Linking the data
available in the RMIS platform to complement the Eurostat tables mentioned above, could be a first
step towards a more comprehensive knowledge base at the level of detail required to assess specific
CRMs.
128 Eurostat. (2017). Main objectives of the Environmental Data Centre on Waste. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/waste/overview 129 Eurostat. (2017). Europroms. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/prodcom/overview/europroms 130 Huisman, J., Habib, H., Brechu, M. G., Downes, S., Herreras, L., Lovik, A. N., … Soderman, M. L. (2016). ProSUM: Prospecting secondary Raw Materials in the Urban Mine and Mining Wastes. In 2016 Electronics Goes Green 2016+ (EGG) (pp. 1–8). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/EGG.2016.7829826 131 Joint Research Centre. (2017). Raw Materials Information System (RMIS). Retrieved October 8, 2017, from http://rmis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ 132 BIO by Deloitte. (2015). Study on Data for a Raw Material System Analysis: Roadmap and Test of the Fully Operational MSA for Raw Materials. Retrieved from https://www.certifico.com/component/attachments/download/2886 133 European Commission. (2017). Methodology for establishing the EU list of critical raw materials. Brussels.
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6 RMI 3RD PILLAR - POLICY AND BUSINESS ISSUES AROUND CRMS
6.1 RECYCLING RATE ESTIMATES AND MAIN RECYCLING ISSUES
Resource efficiency of CRMs involves the optimal use of materials across the product life-cyle and value
chain, from raw material extraction and conversion, product design and manufacture, consumption
and re-use, to recovery, disposal or recycling. Resource efficiency makes economic sense for industry,
and it is also an essential factor in the transition towards a low-carbon economy.
In the EU, like in others parts of the world, the optimal or efficient use of CRMs is conditioned by
economical, cultural and technical limitations, different per material and along the phases of the life
cycle. In general, it can be argued that the most efficient use of CRMs takes place within industry
facilities, i.e. during fabrication of intermediate products as this is the phase were the least material
losses occur. In contrast, and as will be explained in more detail below, large losses in the material
cycle take place during the end-of-life phase.
The status of recycling can be approached through various recycling metrics. One of the most
commonly employed by UNEP is the end-of-life recycling rate (EOL-RR) which is defined as the
percentage of a metal in discards that is actually recycled. In other words, it is the portion of metal in
discarded products (post-consumer or old scrap) which is separated and sorted to obtain recyclates134
that are returned to raw material production processes that generate a metal or metal alloy. The EOL-
RR compares the actual amount of metals obtained from recycling with the amount of metals
theoretically available at the end of the life of a product. For instance, the EOL-RR of cobalt was
estimated by UNEP at 68%, meaning that for every 100 tonnes of cobalt contained in end-of-life
products (discarded as waste), on average 68 tonnes are recycled and available for reuse, a high EOL-
RR. The EOL-RR is strongly influenced by the least efficient step in the recycling chain, which is typically
the initial collection of post-consumer scrap.
Information collected by UNEP on global average EOL-RR shows that the rate of many CRMs are very
low, being lower than 1% for beryllium, borates, gallium, germanium, indium and REE, and between 1
and 10% for antimony and tungsten (Table 2). The only CRMs which have EOL-RR over 50% are
chromium, cobalt, niobium and the PGMs (Table 2). Low EOL-RR are caused due to relatively low
efficiencies in the collection and processing of most metal-bearing discarded products, inherent
limitations in recycling processes (technical limitations), and because primary material is often
relatively abundant and low-cost (thereby keeping down the price of scrap).
For coking coal, fluorspar, magnesite, natural graphite and phosphate rock the EOL-RR approaches
zero because recycling of those materials is technically either very difficult or impossible: coal once
burned cannot be recycled, fluorspar is used in dispersive applications and its recycling becomes
impossible, magnesite is predominantly used in the calcined form as magnesia and it cannot be
134 Recyclates are those materials capable of reentering use after reprocessing
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recycled, a significant amount of material containing natural graphite is lost during use and cannot be
recycled, although phosphorus is recyclable, the input material phosphate rock is not recyclable.
With a focus on electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), challenges include insufficient information
exchange between manufacturers and recyclers of electronic products, the absence of recycling
standards, and a lack of data for economic operators on the potential for recycled CRMs135.
Table 2 : Global average and EU-based recycling rates for CRMs
CRM EOL-RR (%) RC (%) EOL-RIR (%)
Antimony > 10-25 > 10-25 28
Berillyum < 1 > 10-25 0
Borates < 1 na 0
Chromium > 50 > 10-25 na
Cobalt > 50 > 25 - 50 0
Coking coal nf nf nf
Fluorspar nf nf 1
Gallium < 1 > 10-25 0
Germanium < 1 > 25 - 50 2
Indium < 1 > 25 - 50 0
Magnesite na na na
Magnesium (metal) > 25 - 50 > 25 - 50 9
Natural graphite na na 3
Niobium > 50 > 50 0.3
Phosphate rock na na 17
PGMs136 > 50 > 25 - 50 10 (Pd), 11 (Pt), 24 (Rh)
HREE < 1 < 1 11.7137
LREE < 1 1 – 10 3138
Silicon metal na na 0
Tungsten > 10-25 > 25 - 50 42
Source: EOL-RR, RC & OSR based on 139and EOL-RIR based on 140. na = not available, nf = not feasible.
One of the largest problems in the value chain is in the collection of post-fabrication (or post-
consumer) scrap: for instance, each year around almost 10 million tonnes of waste electrical and
electronic equipment (WEEE), products containing a large number of CRMs, is generated in the EU, but
only 2% of this was properly collected and recycled (in 2014)141, meaning CRMs ‘crucial to many
electrical products’ are lost.
Technical limitations (i.e. lack of appropriate technology and of design-for-recyling devices) are also an
important factor hampering higher EOL-RR for many CRMs such as beryllium, germanium, gallium,
indium or silicon metal which are present in discarded products (e.g. EEE) in trace amounts making it
135 See Action Plan for the Circular Economy http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52015DC0614 136 Considers platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd) and rhodium (Rh) 137 Average of Pr (10%), Tb (6%), Y (31%) and Sc (0%) 138 Average of La (1%), Ce (1%), Pr (10%), Nd (1%) and Sm (1%) 139 UNEP, “Recycling Rates of Metals - a Status Report. A Report of the Working Group on the Global Metal Flows to the International Resource Panel. Graedel, T.E.; Allwood, J.; Birat, J.-P.; Reck, B.K.; Sibley, S.F.; Sonnemann, G.; Buchert, M.; Hagelüken, C.” 140 Deloitte et al., “Study on the Review of the List of Critical Raw Materials. Critical Raw Materials Factsheets.” 141 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=t2020_rt130&plugin=1 (accessed 12.12.17)
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technically and economically difficult to recover and re-enter them into the recycling flow. For
instance, world secondary refined indium production results almost exclusively from the recycling of
manufacturing waste (new scrap) rather than recovery from end-of-life (EOL). The recovery of
beryllium metal from copper-beryllium alloys that are included in components of post-consumer scrap
(like electronics) is difficult because of the small size of the components, difficulty of separation, overall
low beryllium content per device and the low beryllium content in the copper beryllium alloy (average
1.25 % beryllium). Thus beryllium is only generally recovered from new scrap generated during the
manufacture of beryllium products, or from copper beryllium or nickel beryllium alloy scrap which is
directly recycled back to produce new alloy since it is attractive from both an economic and energy
conservation point of view. In the case of gallium, it is also highly dispersed.
Semiconductor devices such as integrated circuits and light emitting diodes represent the highest
volumes of gallium consumption but they consist of a few microns thick deposition layer on top of a
much thicker substrate and therefore require very little gallium per device142. Recycling of indium, used
in the form of ITO in liquid crystal display (LCD) flat-panel screens, takes place mainly in China, Japan
and South Korea, but global recovery rates are low due to the technical difficulties of recovery143.
Another issue which hampers efforts toward recycling post-consumer products are market oversupply
and low prices of minerals, which has been reported to be the case e.g. for natural graphite144.
Another indicator commonly employed is the recycled content (RC) defined as the fraction of
secondary metal (scrap) in the total metal input to metal production (this is also called recycling input
rate - RIR). In other words, this indicator measures the proportion of the supply catered for by recycled
metal (scrap, new and old), or, put differently, how much recycled material is used in the production
of a new product. Heavy REE have an extremely low rate, followed by light REE which are also
evidencing a low recycling level between 1 and 10% (Table 2). The rest of the CRMs show RC rates a
bit higher, between 10 and 25% and up to 50%, with only niobium having a very high RC over 50%
(Table 2). Pre-consumer scrap (also called new scrap or industrial scrap) created during the
manufacturing of intermediate or semi-finished products is a consequent source of secondary CRMs
and explains the higher RC rates in comparison to EOL-RR. Thus, in the case of gallium, in comparison
to dissipatives uses which hamper EOL-RR, the fabrication of semiconductor wafers (main use of
gallium) typically generates around 60% scrap145. Recovered gallium from the manufacture of gallium
arsenide and gallium nitride wafers, because of their purity and availability, is estimated to be the most
important source for secondary gallium. Because of increases in metal use over time and long metal
in-use lifetimes, it is expected that many RC values are low and will remain so146.
A last indicator here presented is an EU-based one and is the end-of-life recycling input rate (EOL-
RIR). As defined by Deloitte et al in the last CRM study, the EOL-RIR measures the quantity of end-of-
142 Deloitte et al., “Study on the Review of the List of Critical Raw Materials. Critical Raw Materials Factsheets.” 143 Moss et al. (2011) “Critical Metals in Strategic Energy Technologies: Assessing Rare Metals as Supply-Chain Bottlenecks in Low-Carbon Energy Technologies“, JRC Scientific and Technical Report JRC65592/EUR 24884 EN, 164 p., Luxembourg: Publications Office of the EC, http://publications.jrc. ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC65592, accessed 18.05.17. 144 Deloitte et al., “Study on the Review of the List of Critical Raw Materials. Critical Raw Materials Factsheets.” 145 Butcher and Brown, “Gallium.” 146 UNEP, “Recycling Rates of Metals - a Status Report. A Report of the Working Group on the Global Metal Flows to the International Resource Panel. Graedel, T.E.; Allwood, J.; Birat, J.-P.; Reck, B.K.; Sibley, S.F.; Sonnemann, G.; Buchert, M.; Hagelüken, C.,” 2011.
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life scrap (i.e. ‘old scrap’) contained within the total quantity of metal available to manufacturers
(which would also include primary metal and ‘new scrap’). The end-of-life recycling input rate (EOL-
RIR) in the 2017 assessment refers to the ratio of recycling of old scrap in the EU among the EU supply
of raw material. In alignment with UNEP estimates, many CRMs embeeded in products in trace
amounts (gallium, indium, silicon metal, etc.) display an EOL-RIR almost negligible whereas, in contrast,
tungsten and antimony show a high degree of recycled content in new products. For instance, recycling
of tungsten in high speed steel is high (a typical melt contains 60% to 70% scrap). A discrepancy in the
data presented is found in the case of niobium: according to the UNEP data, its EOL-RR, chiefly as a
constituent of ferrous (e.g. steel) scrap, is greater than 50 %. However, according to the latest study
by Deloitte et al, the amount of niobium physically recovered from scrap (i.e. functional recycling) is
negligible, with estimates given at less than 1 %, i.e. 0.3%147. A similar discrepancy occurs for cobalt.
6.2 EU LEGISLATION DRIVING CRM RESOURCE EFFICIENCY
The most relevant EU-level legislative measures that support the aim of transitioning Europe towards
a ‘resource efficient society’ include (each policy or regulatory instrument applies to different CRMs):
• Circular Economy Package (December 2015): contains a combination of both legislative and non-
legislative elements, such as new and revised legislative proposals on waste, clear targets for
waste reduction and proposed actions to ‘close the loop’ and tackle all phases in the life-cyle of a
product: from production and consumption to waste management and the market for secondary
raw materials. As part of the package, the EC presented an action plan (COM(2015)614 Final)148
for the circular economy which presents targeted action in five selected (priority) waste streams,
one of which are CRMs. In such document the EC acknowledges that it is essential to improve the
recyclability of electronic devices through product design and commits to a series of actions to
encourage recovery of critical raw materials, and the preparation of a report including best
practices and options for further action.
• Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC149): sets the basic concepts and definitions related to
waste managament and lays down waste management principles such as the ‘polluter pays
principle’ or the ‘waste hierarchy’ and the ‘end-of-waste’ status (i.e. when waste ceases to be
waste after recovery). In 2014 a proposal (COM/2014/0397 final) for amending the Waste
Framework Directive (WFD), the 94/62/EC Directive on Packaging, the 1999/31/EC on the landfill
of waste, 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles, 2006/66/EC on batteries and accumulators and
waste batteries and accumulators, and 2012/19/EU on WEEE150, was presented. In such proposal
the following considerations in relation to CRMs were made:
147 Deloitte et al., “Study on the Review of the List of Critical Raw Materials. Critical Raw Materials Factsheets.” See Factsheet on Niobium. 148 COM(2015) 614 Final - Closing the loop - An EU action plan for the Circular Economy http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52015DC0614 149 European Parliament and Council (2008) “Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives”, OJ of the European Union, L312/3-30, 22.11.2008, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/ LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:312: 0003:0030:en:PDF, accessed 16.06.17. 150 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2014:0397:FIN
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It was acknowledged that in order to ensure security of supply of CRMs, MSs should “take measures to
achieve the best possible management of waste containing significant amounts of CRMs in line with the
waste hierarchy, taking economic and technological feasibility and environmental benefits into account.
The measures contained in this Directive [WFD], e.g. the recycling targets for municipal waste and the
ban on the disposal of metals, including metals present in discarded products, in landfills for non-
hazardous waste will support the measures taken at national level”.
It was also proposed that “Member States should include in their waste management plans nationally
appropriate measures regarding collection and recovery of waste containing significant amounts of
critical raw materials”.
Also in 2014 the following amendment was proposed for paragraph b, Art. 28 (waste management
plans):
The waste management plans shall contain, as appropriate and taking into account the geographical
level and coverage of the planning area, at least the following:
b) “existing waste collection schemes and major disposal and recovery installations, including any special
arrangements for waste oils, hazardous waste, waste containing significant amounts of CRMs, or waste
streams addressed by specific Union legislation”
As part of the circular economy package presented in December 2015, the proposal for the amendment
of the WFD and the other 3 Directives was submitted again. Yet, the 2015 proposal to amend the WFD
(COM(2015)595 Final151) referred to CRMs in a different way, “Member States should take measures to
achieve the best possible management of waste containing significant amounts of those raw materials
[raw materials with a high importance to the economy of the EU and associated with a high supply risk],
taking economic and technological feasibility and environmental benefits into account”, using for that
the regularly reviewed EC-commissioned CRM list. The 2015 proposal to amend paragraph b, Art. 28,
explicitly mentioned CRMs by arguing that waste management plans shall contain at least:
'(b) existing waste collection schemes and major disposal and recovery installations, including any special
arrangements for waste oils, hazardous waste, waste containing significant amounts of raw materials
that are of a high importance to the economy of the Union and whose supply is associated with a high
risk, or waste streams addressed by specific Union legislation;' [bold by the authors]
In the end, the current text of Directive 2008/98/EC in force does not make an explicit reference to
CRMs, it argues that waste management plans shall contain at least:
b) “existing waste collection schemes and major disposal and recovery installations, including any special
arrangements for waste oils, hazardous waste or waste streams addressed by specific Community
legislation”;
• Directive on End-of-life Vehicles (2000/53/EC152) aims at making dismantling and recycling of End-
of-life Vehicles (ELVs) more environmentally friendly. It sets clear quantified targets for re-use,
151 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=&uri=CELEX:52015PC0595 152 European Parliament (2013), “DIRECTIVE 2000/53/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL”, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:02000L0053-20130611&qid=1405610569066&from=EN, accessed 24.03.17.
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recycling and recovery of the ELVs and their components. It also pushes producers to manufacture
new vehicles without hazardous substances (in particular lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent
chromium), thus promoting the re-use, recyclability and recovery of waste vehicles; main CRMs
contained in end-of-life vehicles are magnesium, PGMs (catalysts).
• WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU153) seeks to improve the environmental management of Waste
Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and to contribute to a circular economy and enhance
resource efficiency through the improvement of collection, treatment and recycling of electronics
at the end of their life. It lays down collection, recycling and recovery targets for electrical goods
and establishes the principle of Extended Producer Reponsibility (EPR) in Art 7(1): “Without
prejudice to Article 5(1), each Member State shall ensure the implementation of the ‘producer
responsibility’ principle and, on that basis, that a minimum collection rate is achieved annually”.
As stated in the Directive´s text, the establishment of producer responsibility is one of the means
of encouraging design and production of EEE that take into full account and facilitate its repair,
possible upgrading, re-use, disassembly and recycling. WEEE are important holders of cobalt,
gallium, germanium, indium, antimony, REE and PGMs (mainly palladium and platinum).
• RoHS 2 Directive (recast Directive 2011/65/EU154) – the Directive on the Restriction of (the use of
certain) Hazardous Substances (RoHS) in electrical and electronic equipment provides, along with
the WEEE Directive, for the creation of collection schemes, where consumers return their used e-
waste free of charge. The objective of these schemes is to increase the recycling and/or re-use of
such products. The legislation requires heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and
hexavalent chromium, and flame retardants such as polybrominated biphenyls or polybrominated
diphenyl ethers to be substituted by safer alternatives155. The aim of the RoHS recast was to
reduce administrative burdens and ensure coherency with newer policies and legislation covering,
e.g., chemicals and the new legislative framework for the marketing of products in the EU;
• The Batteries Directive (2006/66/EC156) intends to contribute to the protection, preservation and
improvement of the quality of the environment by minimising the negative impact of batteries
and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators. It also ensures the smooth functioning
of the internal market by harmonising requirements as regards the placing on the market of
batteries and accumulators. With some exceptions, it applies to all batteries and accumulators,
no matter their chemical nature, size or design. To achieve these objectives, the Directive
prohibits the marketing of batteries containing certain hazardous substances, defines measures
to establish schemes aiming at high level of collection and recycling, and fixes targets for collection
153 European Parliament (2012), “DIRECTIVE 2012/19/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 4 July 2012 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)”, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32012L0019, accessed 24.03.17. 154 European Parliament (2011), “DIRECTIVE 2011/65/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 8 June 2011 on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment”, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32011L0065, accessed 24.03.17. 155 European Commission (2017), “The RoHS Directive”, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/rohs_eee/index_en.htm, accessed 24.03.17. 156 European Parliament (2006), “DIRECTIVE 2006/66/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 6 September 2006 on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators and repealing Directive 91/157/EEC”, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:02006L0066-20131230&rid=1, accessed 24.03.17.
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and recycling activities 157 . CRMs contained in batteries include cobalt (currently under
investigation by the ProSum project158), REE and natural graphite.
• Waste Shipment Legislation (Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006159): this Regulation implements into
EU law the provisions of the "Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of
Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal" as well as the OECD Decision (C(2001)107/FINAL). The
Regulation includes a ban on the export of hazardous wastes to non-OECD countries as well as a
ban on the export of waste for disposal, e.g. illegal exports of high-value waste streams such as
WEEE or of end-of-life vehicles containing potentially recoverable CRMs. Different regimes apply
to shipments of wastes for disposal and for recovery, as well as to hazardous and ‘green-listed’
non-hazardous wastes. The shipment of hazardous wastes and of wastes destined for disposal is
generally subject to notification procedures with the prior written consent of all relevant
authorities of dispatch, transit and destination. However, as a rule, the shipment of ‘green-listed’
wastes for recovery within the EU and OECD does not require the consent of the authorities.
• Eco-design Directive (2009/125/EC 160 ) provides consistent EU-wide rules for improving the
environmental performance of products, such as household appliances, information and
communication technologies, or engineering. The Directive sets out minimum mandatory
requirements for the energy efficiency of these products. It is complemented by the Energy
Labelling Directive (2010/30/EU) that establishes mandatory labelling requirements. The
Ecodesign directive already covers all significant environmental impacts along the life-cycle of
products, but the focus so far has been on energy efficiency improvements. It is expected that the
Ecodesign Directive will make a more significant contribution to the circular economy, e.g., by
more systematically tackling material efficiency issues such as durability and recyclability161.
6.3 STRATEGIES AND INITIATIVES DRIVING CRM RESOURCE EFFICIENCY
Besides the previously mentioned legislation, an increasing in resource efficiency of how CRMs are
managed can not be reached alone by isolated interventions, but requires coordinated action of
different stakeholders. Besides recycling, there exist a plentiful of strategies and initiatives led by the
industry which are enhancing the resource efficiency in manifold ways, as follows:
Design for recycling: in line with the Eco-Design Directive, this means designing products from a life-
cycle approach where final products can be easily disassembled to be re-use and recycled. Although
157 European Parliament and Council (2006), “Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators and repealing Directive 91/157/EEC”, OJ L 266, 26.09.2006, p. 1-28, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:02006L0066-20131230&rid=1, accessed 24.03.17. 158 Electronic Goes Green 2016+ (2016), “Stocks and Flows of Critical Materials in Batteries: Data Collection and Data Uses”, See http://www.prosumproject.eu/sites/default/files/2016_Chancerel-ProSUM_Stocks%20flows%20CRM%20in%20BATT_EGG.pdf, accessed 24.03.17. 159 European Parliament and Council (2006) “Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2006 on shipments of waste”, OJ of the European Union, L190/1-98, 12.07.2006, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32006R1013&from=en, accessed 16.06.17. 160 European Parliament and Council (2009), “DIRECTIVE 2009/125/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 21 October 2009 establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-related products (recast)”, OJ of the European Union, L 285/10-35, 31.10.2009, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:285:0010:0035:en:PDF, accessed 17.05.17. 161 European Commission (2016) “Ecodesign Working Plan 2016-2019”, Communication from the Commission, COM(2016) 773 final, 30.11.2016, http://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ ener/files/documents/com_2016_773.en_.pdf, accessed 27.03.17.
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eco-design practices have potential, their uptake by the market is slow in general and is only
implemented via incremental improvements. For instance, Toyota designs vehicles with dismantling in
mind, for example by creating V-shaped grooves at the points in the bodywork where the instrument
panel is attached, making it easier to remove. Due to complex and dynamic nature of global value
chains through which products are designed and manufactured, it seems daunting to coordinate
actions between designers, manufacturers and recyclers (e.g. insufficient information exchange).
Material reduction and substitution: product design optimisation may enable the reduction of weight
and components through the use of less or lighter materials. Likewise, materials may be substituted
by others, which may have a lower environmental impact over the entire life-cycle or may have a lower
supply risk. The substitution of Pt by Pd in automobile catalysts provides a good example for this. As
of the mid-1990s, the expensive Pt was partially substituted by the then less expensive Pd. This led to
a large increase in Pd demand and caused a reversal of the Pt to Pd price ratio; combined with supply
restrictions on Pd exports from Russia, an all-time high of the Pd price was reached in 2000 162 .
Nevertheless, for some CRMs (antimony, cobalt, gallium, germanium, indium, REE, silicon) the
replacement metal is often from the same group of elements (see details in Table 6 in Annex 3).
Easier dismantling and recovery of CRMs: an easier dismantling of CRMs is aligned with an eco-design
strategy. Although in theory this bears a high potential, dismantling and recycling technologies for
CRMs particularly for minor metals are not advanced enough to be considered economically viable.
For example, current recycling of the rare earth permanent magnets is minimal and practices exist only
with return of minor amounts of scrap material to the alloy manufacturing plant. Efforts to recycle
end-of-life products containing NdFeB yield a small return and physical extraction is difficult, as these
magnets are brittle intermetallics, which are deeply embedded and sometimes glued onto other
products. Even liberating and recycling some of these permanent magnets via pyrometallurgical or
hydrometallurgical techniques could generate harmful gases or sludges. Recycling could even be seen
as harmful to the environment in such cases163.
Re-use and recycling: Re-use of products containing CRMs is most efficiently conducted on pre-
consumer scrap, i.e. on scrap created by manufacturing processes at the fabrication site. One
possibility is to re-use such scrap, e.g. metal scrap, by re-melting it. An example of such a corporate
policy is given by Rolls Royce´s ‘Revert’ Programme where waste metals from manufacturing are
recovered, recycled and re-used, so that such metals can be melted again and turned into new
aerospace alloys.
Further details on these initiatives is available in Annex 3.
162 Hagelüken & Meskers (2009), “Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals”, in: Graedel, T.E., van der Voet, E. [Eds.] Linkages of Sustainability, 163–97, The MIT Press Scholarship Online, http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/ 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013581.001.0001/upso-9780262013581-chapter-10, accessed 17.05.17. 163 Bailey et al. (2017), “Sustainability of Permanent Rare Earth Magnet Motors in (H)EV Industry”, J. Sustain. Metall., DOI 10.1007/s40831-017-0118-4.
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7 SWOT ANALYSIS
A SWOT analysis164 is here conducted on the main business and policy issues around CRMs in Europe
identified throughout this deliverable. The analysis addresses market and supply chain issues as well
as policies and initiatives at EU level (and a few at Member State level, the focus of D7.2). The analysis
is organised according to the three pillars of the RMI, and for each a SWOT analysis is made for all the
life stages of the CRMs on which information was collected for this report. It should be highlited that
some weakenesses can also be understood as opportunities.
7.1 CRM SUPPLY FROM GLOBAL MARKETS
First pillar – Sustainable supply of CRMs from global markets
Strengths
• International support by the WTO for the EU´s industry against resource nationalism by CRM supplier nations, mainly China (e.g. WTO dispute settlement mechanisms and rulings against Chinese export restrictions on REE, W, Mo, etc.).
• Strong EU policy framework and funding for international cooperation and research projects including multiple stakeholders and international partners, also with some CRM supplying countries (e.g. South Africa/chromium and PGMs).
• CRMs are gradually becoming a priority commitment in EU trade policy (‘Section 2.1.6 in the Trade for All Strategy) and regulatory policy (e.g. Conflict Minerals Regulation to reduce the imports of ‘conflict minerals’ or anti-dumping measures to regulate the CRMs´ market).
• To address potential supply risks and to factilitate the supply, for years CRM-importing companies and countries have been leading a supply diversification policy by making agreements with different CRM suppliers, by forming alliances, by engaging into long-term contracts.
Opportunities
• New Free Trade agreements between EU and CRM-supplying nations to ensure long-term supply security based on the common grounds established by the ‘Trade for All’ strategy.
• Establish or re-orientate policy dialogues focusing resource diplomacy on countries having large reserves and substantial production of CRMs, e.g. Brazil (niobium, compare with the Niobium Alliance established by Japan, South Korea and Brazil), Russia/SouthAfrica (PGMs/chromite), Mexico (fluorspar), Morocco (phosphate rock), DRC (Co), which may also contribute to a reduction of illegal trading.
• Reducing CRM illegal trade entering into the EU due to enhanced supply chain transparency achieved via chains of custody mechanisms.
• Defining terms of cooperation with partner countries of setting up public mining enterprises in distinct key CRMs.
164 A SWOT analysis is focusing on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
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Weaknesses
• Unlike for other technology alliances (e.g. space technology, remote sensing, nuclear research, etc.) little effort has been made to set up structures for a cross-European provision of CRM.
• Low level implementation of actions in the international cooperation pillar of the SIP (Strategic Implementation Plan) and only few H2020-funded cooperation projects (e.g. FORAM, SCRREEN) focused on establishing partnerships and international cooperation / strategic dialogues around the supply chain of specific CRMs.
• Limited international cooperation or trade diplomacy focused on specific CRMs (e.g. phosphate, niobium).
• Development cooperation is a major element of EU external politics, but so far shows little impact on the EU raw material supply policy.
• Ambiguous attitude of major users of CRMs in Europe to invest in security of supply or supply resilience.
• Reliance on free markets; no tradition of setting up public-private partnerships that can overcome market failures with regard to sustainable supply.
• Only few examples of corporate long-term supply contracts (forward contracts) with suppliers of CRMs; this can also be considered an opportunity, even though long-term supply contracts also have disadvantages, transaction costs and may not be attractive for suppliers (e.g. due to pricing because CRMs are not traded openly on any metal exchange)165.
• Little still is known about the magnitude of illegal trade, routes and hubs of CRMs and the issue of unfair and illegal trade of CRMs remains unresolved.
• There is no interaction and no making use of certain member state cooperation with global markets in terms of supply security and strategic partnerships.
Threats
• Many CRMs are companion metals and have hence an inelastic supply.
• China is still a dominant supplier of many CRM, and the hybrid private-public nature of its operations will make it difficult to create competing supply under market conditions.
• Not considering strategic plans of global powers such as the “Made in China 2025” masterplan.
• The access to CRMs in China through subsidiaries is not to be interpreted as a secure and stable source of supply, as raw material access in China might become increasingly restricted amid growing domestic demand.
• The small quantities in which CRMs are normally used implies that a transparent spot market is non existent, leading to intransparent markets dominated by bilateral long-term contracts.
• Long-term contracts may be seen as a threat (and thus challenged) by the EC, if customer foreclosure is a result of it.
• High or frequent price volatility due to supply shocks.
What complicates the supply chain is the pricing, which is quite opaque in case of some CRMs like Cobalt and Wolfram, and the fact that many of them are not openly traded on any metal exchange as copper or gold. The two principal mechanisms that determine pricing are long-term contract prices and spot prices: long-term contract: prices are negotiated between buyers and sellers and generally remain confidential; on the spot: prices are typically lower than the long-term contract price and the price for certified conflict-free material comes with an additional premium.
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• Funding of exploration campaigns are mainly reflecting short-term price volatilities. Gold exploration costs accounts for around 50% of total costs. Hardly any funds are made available for CRM-exploration, based on the fact that they may attract high prices in the future.
• For several CRMs there are specialised markets served by minor mining companies who have difficulty in attracting risk capital and cannot survive price shocks easily.
• Certain CRM markets, particularly low volume ones, are inherently instable and volatile – innovative product technologies may reduce (e.g. LED) or enhance (e.g. electric vehicles) the need for CRMs suddenly.
• The marginal nature of extraction markets implies that mining of some CRMs often takes place in poor, instable regions, and via illegal practices. This leads to a high dependence on supply from regions subjected to political crisis and the threat of a continued illegal supply of CRMs.
• Lack of investment and threat of shut down of active mines of few CRMs.
• China – WTO issue (China main CRM supplier for EU)
7.2 CRM SUPPLY WITHIN THE EU
Second pillar – Sustainable supply of raw materials within the EU
Strengths
• The EU has several undeveloped mineral deposits spanning across all CRMs (see Figure 8).
• The EU has an industry capable of extracting and refining CRMs from concentrates or from scrap (e.g. gallium, germanium, indium) and a strong downstream industry, but only a limited nucleus of industries capable of beneficiating and processing CRM containing ores (e.g. REE).
• The Strategic Implementation Plan of the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials (EIP), the H2020 R&I program and additional Member State programmes represent the major policy framework to incentivise exploration. Various projects are advancing the attractiveness of the sector, including CRMs, by making available data on the European geological and mineral potential on CRMs (e.g. ProMine project), by promoting R&D in new extraction methods (e.g. Solsa project), by advancing R&D in new recovery methods of by-products (CRMs) to reduce losses during beneficiation (e.g. ENVIREE, etc.), to develop combinations of technology that allow economically viable ways of extracting ore deposits that are often relatively small in tonnage terms but carry significant CRM potential (e.g. FAME project focused on the valorisation of most common and prospective ore types of European deposit geology), to ensure access to CRM-containing deposits via land use planning (MINATURA2020, MINLAND) (see Table 5, Annex 3 for a detailed list).
• The EU´s Raw Materials Knowledge Base (under construction) represents a strong information tool to disseminate further and make the knowledge intelligently available for the industry, investors and other users.
• The EC underwent a paradigm change in industrial policy making from a service-based economy to a resource efficient production economy. The EC recognises its dilemma of de-industrialisation and of manufacturing leaving Europe because of a problematic raw materials supply situation in terms of global policy making and lacking social acceptance to mining. The EC committed to a strong re-industrialisation as the major base for prosperity and social care.
• The industry has been very active in advancing the agenda to promote the domestic production of CRMs by establishing technology platforms for a closer cooperation with multiple actors (see Table
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4 in Annex 3); this has been strongly supported by the EIP-RM which creates a world-class environment promoting cooperation and innovation.
• Some national governments of Member States that have promising CRM potential are implementing strong R&I programmes to pioneer new exploration methods from the technical and social acceptance perspectives (e.g. Finland´s Green Mining initiative, German r3 and r4 programmes, Ireland Tellus mapping programme); however, there are no guarantees that CRMs potentially extracted from European deposits will be made available to the European market.
• Exploration incentives are available in some EU Member States (Finland, Germany, Spain, Poland).
Opportunities
• The European Minerals Investment Platform within the European Fund for Strategic Investments could open up a financing line for the sector contributing to overcoming financing challenges in exploration activities, mine development and recycling installations in Europe. This would be aligned with a policy recommendation by the ERECON network for REE: “The EC and Member States should evaluate possibilities for supporting the extensive R&D necessary for pre-feasibility and bankable feasibility studies, to avoid high quality deposits in Europe simply going unexplored”166. The ERECON report (2015) describes various ways of achieving the necessary support via direct equity investment, public loans, and R&D tax credits (e.g. Australia, where 45% of R&I expenditure by REE exploration companies is covered by public funds). Yet, there is no guarantee that potentially produced CRMs will be made available to the EU´s market.
• For many CRMs (e.g. REE) the proven reserves are much higher than the current demand. Yet, various conditions need to be fulfilled so that mining in Europe can advance beyond an opportunity. For instance, for REE, research has shown that REE-projects outside China will need a reliable process and viable feed source, facilities for REE-separation, as well as industrial off-takers with demand for the different suites of a European supply and a strategy how to address fluctuations in REE-prices167. Potentially viable REE projects in Sweden or Greenland will require adequate off-take agreements and more streamlined permitting (addressing social and environmental impacts and social licence issues). This requires, however, to intensify the dialogue with the local governments and to find a long-term agreement to develop Greenland as part of the European community.
• To establish incentives to recover CRMs from smelters. The recovery efficiency of the minor by-product metals depends on the presence of the appropriate recovery processes. Losses of metal value during primary production (mining and mineral processing) do occur. Mining tends to be selective; only the ore with sufficient metal content (the carrier metal and desired by-products) to be economically removed is mined, while other metals not targeted are lost (they are part of the gangue and are disposed in waste management facilities)168. When the presence of the non-desired metals leads to ‘penalties’ or difficulties during later processing, the incentive to mine ores with a high minor metal content could be even lower. This could be changed by mechanisms that compensated for the penalties or by new technologies that recovered the CRMs during preceding steps, thus avoiding them becoming a penalising element by the smelters. For example, the penalties that were levied for many years on selenium in concentrates by many Cu smelters could have made it unfavorable to mine Se-rich ores. However, high demand increased the price of Se in
166 Kooroshy, J., Tiess, G., Tukker, A., Walton, A. [Eds.] (2015), “Strenghtening the European Rare Earths Supply-Chain. Challenges and Policy Options”, ERECON Network, European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/10882/ attachments/1/ translations/en/renditions/pdf, accessed 17.05.17. 167 GEUS and D’Apolonia, “Road Map for REE Material Supply Autonomy in Europe.” 168 Verhoef, Dijkema, and Reuter, (2004), “Process Knowledge, System Dynamics, and Metal Ecology.”, Journal of Industrial Ecology, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1162/1088198041269382/abstract
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2003, and this decreased or even eliminated penalties. As a result, mining of ores with higher Se content became more attractive169.
• Assess further the possibility of recovering CRMs from historic primary stocks such as stockpiled tailings and slag as well as old mines, not primary mined for such raw materials (e.g. tantalum and tungsten in old tin mines, cobalt in nickel-copper-silver mines etc.). A streamlining in the permitting is required as such activities require, in most cases, the same permitting procedures as completely new mines, if they are not part of an ongoing operation.
Weaknesses
• The current European CRM mining scene is dominated by minor companies that have no access to risk capital.
• Many cohesion funds do not sufficiently consider raw materials economy and regional planning in paving the way for private entrepreneurship and investments in mining and mining related industries, nor accompanying measures such as social licence to operate and raw material awareness building. Many cohesion funds, targeting cross-border activities, are subject to regional policy making that bans mining activities.
• There are functioning R&I research alliances between European partners, but no alliance exists to fund important domestic mine developments, e.g. discovered CRM deposits such as REE deposits.
• There is an ambiguous attitude of major users of CRMs in Europe to invest in security of supply / supply resilience.
• Reliance on free markets; no tradition setting up in public-private partnerships that can overcome market failures with regard to sustainable supply.
• Insufficient mechanisms to compensate price fluctuations and avoid price shocks very damaging to SMEs.
• Due to EU´s high import reliance for most CRMs and the lack of supply risk reducing mechanisms, EU importers (companies) are still vulnerable to market disruptions. For instance, China may supply cheap CRMs in the EU market disrupting EU producing and refining facilities, as exemplified by the gallium supply with operations coming to a halt in 2013 in Hungary and in 2016 in Germany170.
• Absence of clear EURATUM and IAEA regulations/guidelines related to naturally occuring radioactive materials (NORM), as some of the REE ores contain uranium, thorium, and radium. Adequate management routes for further utilisation or as waste must be established.
• Investment security (legal certainty for investors) is not secured in various regions of the EU which is compounded by slow, unpredictable and inefficient permitting procedures due to various reasons (cf. results of the MINLEX project171).
• The EC has early recognised the REE potential of Greenland and has already established a cooperation policy for increasing the participation of European exploration companies. However, the European market is not sufficient for companies to sell their output, thus even European exploration companies will have to find off-take arrangements with China.
• Exploration companies lack sufficient financing opportunities; in the case of some CRMs (REE, gallium, indium, etc.) this difficulty is compounded by the fact that markets do not exist for raw
169 Hagelüken & Meskers (2009) “Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals”, in: Graedel, T.E., van der Voet, E. [Eds.] Linkages of Sustainability, 163–97, The MIT Press Scholarship Online, http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.7551/mitpress/ 9780262013581.001.0001/upso-9780262013581-chapter-10, accessed 17.05.17. 170 Deloitte et al., “Study on the Review of the List of Critical Raw Materials. Critical Raw Materials Factsheets.” 171 MinPol, “Legal Framework for Mineral Extraction and Permitting Procedures for Exploration and Exploitation in the EU. Final Report - Study.”
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materials (e.g. REE concentrates) and there are no exchanges on which standardised products can be traded, creating high entry barriers for aspiring miners. In other words, there are no markets for mixed REE concentrates outside of China, and aspiring miners must either attempt to develop their own capital-intensive and technically complex separation plants or cooperate with existing facilities. Outside of China, such facilities currently exist only in France, Estonia, Malaysia, Japan and the USA172. Moreover, the establishment of a REE material supply chain from mine to market in Europe appears to need substantial and continuous political support, as a reliance on economic performance might be insufficient to maintain such a venture173.
• Short-lived expert networks such as the ERECON/EURARE network i.e. its impact is too short (compared to invested resources).
Threats
• Even if the EU would manage to step up primary extraction of CRMs, the next steps in the value chain often are concentrated outside Europe (e.g. beneficiation and making magnets as intermediates in the case of Nd). Enhancing EU supply hence does not necessarily mitigate supply risks since the primary materials will be still need to be processed elsewhere; moreover, there is no guarantee that REE produced will be supplied to the EU market. In other words, developing the CRM supply in Europe does not help if the next 2-3 tiers of the supply chain still are dominated by China.
• The lack of proper stakeholder engagement can play against the social acceptance of new exploration or extraction projects, specially those involving minerals which are generally known to involve a high risk of pollution (e.g. fears of radioactivity by the community, if not properly managed, are a major threat for CRM exploration projects with REE ores containing uranium and thorium).
• While the current regulations for handling radioactive wastes provide adequate protections in the EU, the lack of European guidelines for Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) mining wastes can potentially slow down permitting processes for REE projects.
• An increasing threat is given in the increasing power of NGOs and networks of organised civil society against mining. There is a mismatch of the financial strength between those fighting mining and promoting mining.
• Overoptimistic emphasing of the circular economy paradigm (c.f. 3rd Pillar) may undermine the publics’ and political decision makers’ awareness of the need of primary production of raw materials, including CRMs.
172 Kooroshy, J., Tiess, G., Tukker, A., Walton, A. [Eds.] (2015), “Strenghtening the European Rare Earths Supply-Chain. Challenges and Policy Options”, ERECON Network, European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/10882/ attachments/1/ translations/en/renditions/pdf, accessed 17.05.17. 173 GEUS and D’Apolonia, “Road Map for REE Material Supply Autonomy in Europe.”
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7.3 CRM AND RESOURCE EFFICIENCY
Third pillar – Resource efficiency and promote recycling
Strengths:
• Strong EU policy focusing on Resource Efficiency which can reduce the need for primary raw material production.
• EU´s continuous and strong commitment to advance towards a “resource efficient society” via legislation and strategies promoting a circular economy constitute a fundamental framework for all derived corporate and governmental-led policies and initiatives, including also military/defence-related projects (e.g. MANGA project for gallium).
• The findings of the ERECON network called for the establishment of a European Critical Materials Observatory for the mapping and monitoring of REE supply chains, which is necessary for informed decision-making. The JRC-RMIS system is currently working on the mapping and monitoring of raw materials, and REE have a special status.
• Recycling of CRMs is an established business in same cases (e.g. PGMs from catalytic converters, gallium recovered from manufacturing scrap from deposition processes such as sputtering, brines from wafer production, cobalt recovered from lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride batteries).
• Re-use of pre-consumer scrap is increasingly being applied by the industry (e.g. of In, Ge, Ru).
• New pioneer business models focused on recovering special and technology metals, of which some are CRMs, such as those of UMICORE and SNAM are instrumental for the efficient recovery of CRMs.
Opportunities
• Embedding eco-design principles into product and processing designs focused on CRMs has been little implemented and still remains an open opportunity, as highlighted e.g. by the results of the FP7 project COBALT174 or by the FAIRPHONE project (https://www.fairphone.com).
• Economic incentives could be established for the development of technological processes aiming at the co-recovery of new and difficult/complex materials.
• An opportunity lies in setting up a voluntary European ‘CRMs fund’ that invests upstream to de-risk projects and supports the development of diversified supply chains for CRMs. The fund could rely on private sources backed by governmental support such as public guarantees175.
• Monitoring of CRM supply chains is necessary for informed decision-making. The forming International Observatory on Raw Materials driven by the INTRAW project176 could open a specific line on the monitoring of CRMs in cooperation with the JRC-RMIS. One possible activity could be to assess the most promising products and recycling strategies, e.g. in the near term, opportunities for
174 Hirschnitz-Garbers et al. (2015), “Fostering stakeholder dialogue and co-management for sustainable raw materials management in Europe”, see ‘wicked issue No. 5’ in: cobalt - Policy Brief No. 8 (April 2015), 7 p., http://www.cobalt-fp7.eu/pdf/policy_briefs/COBALT_8th_Policy%20Brief_ ClosConf_FINAL.pdf, accessed 17.03.17. 175 Kooroshy et al. [Eds.] (2015), “Strenghtening the European Rare Earths Supply-Chain. Challenges and Policy Options”, ERECON Network, European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/10882/ attachments/1/ translations/en/renditions/pdf, accessed 17.05.17. 176 http://intraw.eu/
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EoL recycling of REE magnets are largest for hard disk drives and specific assemblies in automotive applications, where magnets are relatively large and economies of scale can be achieved177.
Weaknesses
• EU legislation with regard to recycling is currently focused on the amount of materials recycled (volume recycling), and has no focus on small flows of CRMs (e.g. WEEE, ELV directives).
• EU end of life legislation does not focus on specific collection and recovery rates for strategic metals (CRMs) like cobalt.
• Eco-design appears to be occurring only on incremental improvements (and not on system innovations), and still few initiatives exist in Europe specifically focused on re-designing products or processes to re-use/reduce/substitute parts containing CRMs. Even if Europe paves the way for smart specialisation in circular economy, it is a matter of fact that Europe faces a declining influence on the design and manufacturing of goods due to global supply chains.
• Customer behaviour is not yet fully investigated with regard to commitments to accepting higher prices for eco-products and to barriers that require more technology developments prior to market entry (e.g. e-mobility and its limited operating radius).
• Car recycling is an established business in Europe, but recycling is not focused on CRM recycling. Airplane (commercial and military) recycling is not an established business in Europe.
• Very low end-of-life recycling rates exist for many products containing CRMs (e.g. electronic control units of cars) and no recycling policies exist for various CRMs (e.g. Nb, Nd), which mean that many CRMs are lost when products reach their end of life.
• REE recycling in Europe still faces various constraints: key obstacles to increasing rates of REE include the lack of information about the quantity of REE materials available for recycling, insufficient and often non-selective collection rates, and recycling-unfriendly designs of many REE-containing products178. A similar situation applies for other CRMs.
• There is little knowledge nor acceptance in many parts of the society and political decision makers that there are thermodynamic and chemical limits to recycling, resulting in unrealistic expectations.
Threats
• CRMs may be used in contexts that make it difficult or impossible to establish collection and recovery systems that can recover them cost-effectively.
• Growing losses of CRMs and other strategic metals due to inappropriate legislation and recycling frameworks (collection schemes, suitable pre-treatment plants etc.).
• Stakeholders (e.g. the public) might not be willing to participate in the collection systems.
• There is a lacking awareness of the declining processing and metallurgical know-how in Europe, as well as of the importance of metallurgy for a circular economy. Recycling – as a matter of its own – becomes more and more a subject of ideology guided promotion and decision making, rather than being scientifically and technically founded.
• There still remains an unfair competition between EU and overseas manufacturers, who are not subject to the same full implementation and enforcement of EU recycling legislation.
177 KIooroshy et al. [Eds.] (2015), “Strenghtening the European Rare Earths Supply-Chain. Challenges and Policy Options”, ERECON Network, European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/10882/ attachments/1/ translations/en/renditions/pdf, accessed 17.05.17. 178 ERECON, “Strenghtening the European Rare Earths Supply-Chain. Challenges and Policy Options. Kooroshy, J., G. Tiess, A. Tukker, and A. Walton (Eds.).”
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8 CONCLUSIONS
The CRMs remain a very important input for the EU´s industry. Yet, in this deliverable we have shown
that a sustained, stable and sustainable CRM supply for the industry is undermined by market and
supply chain issues such as supply risks, trade barriers, price fluctuations and non-transparent price
formation, ineslatic supply of CRMs being a companion metal, illegal mining and illegal trade,
insufficient incentives and conditions to invest in EU mining projects as well as still low resource
effiency measures.
In relation to EU imports stability, the concentration of production and reserves in a few countries
represents a high risk of supply disruptions due to potential export restrictions, especially considering
the role of China, still a dominant supplier of most CRMs with private-public operations making it
difficult to create competing supply under market conditions. For years some companies (especially
large ones) have deployed various strategies to reduce supply disruption risks, but they still remain
vulnerable to potential new supply risks.
The EU trade policy is now advancing in the right direction with the Trade for all strategy which calls
for the inclusion of a chapter on energy and raw materials on all new FTA negotiations; however, it is
not yet clear if CRMs will be given priority over other materials. Also the EU Conflict Minerals regulation
has created high hopes of a culture and market of due diligence to increase the transparency and fight
against imports of one CRM (tungsten, and tantalum if the 2017 CRM list is considered) from non-
responsible sources. Yet, there remain doubts around the effectiveness of voluntary schemes as the
regulation leaves room for downstream companies to import conflict minerals-derived products as the
due diligence is voluntary.
The EU already produces 12 CRMs and has a considerable potential to further explore and extract
CRMs in its territory, and also in some of its overseas countries and territories (Greenland, New
Caledonia). It is also capable of refining CRMs, both from primary (virgin ores, CRMs often as by-
products) and secondary (scrap) sources. Such progress is conditioned upon the provision of economic,
social and regulatory conditions which make exploration and mining projects attractive enough for
investors, namely, sufficient risk capital availability, more streamlined, transparent and predictable
permitting, better stakeholder engagement mechanisms and societal awareness reducing social
opposition to new developments.
Given that many CRMs are produced as companion metals (by-products), the promotion and
advancement of projects targeting carrier metals may also promote the extraction and refining of
CRMs, as long as sufficient incentives are available for miners.
Another important supply aspect lies in how global supply chains function. Enhancing EU supply via
development of domestic CRM-containing deposits does not necessarily mitigate supply risks since the
primary materials will be still need to be processed elsewhere, e.g. for intermediate products;
moreover, there is no guarantee that the CRMs produced in the EU will be supplied to the EU market.
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The demand side of the market also plays an important role. It may be the case for some CRMs (e.g.
REE) that the European demand is insufficient to justify a large capital investment in the domestic
production. Thus, ensuring the possibility of off-take agreements with large demanders (e.g. Chinese
companies in the case of REE) is of central importance. Thus, the establishment of a REE material
supply chain from mine to market in Europe appears to need substantial and continuous political
support, as a reliance on economic performance might be insufficient to maintain such a venture.
With the exception of coking coal, fluorspar, magnesite, natural graphite and phosphate rock which
cannot be recycled, increasing the level of efficiency in which CRMs are handled through their life cycle
bears a strong potential to reduce the level of primary feed needed to supply the industry. Yet, in
general, CRMs experience many losses during the life cycle, especially when reaching their end-of-life.
Exceptions are, for instance, PGMs which have a high end-of-life recycling rate, very high scrap prices
and are recovered in a more established industry (e.g. recovery of PGMs from auto-catalysts). Yet, low
recycling rates are rooted on economic (e.g. low scrap prices), organisational (e.g. low collection rates
of scrap) and technical factors (CRMs such as gallium or germanium are present in trace amounts
within alloys making it technically very difficult and expensive to recover). The industry has been
pioneering manifold solutions to increase the efficiency, and has been successful especially in re-using
and recycling pre-fabrication scrap.
Concerning EU legislation, we believe it provides a good and comprehensive basis for promoting and
pushing Member States to a higher CRM resource efficiency, e.g. EU´s Action Plan for a Circular
Economy prioritises CRMs. Yet, EU legislation with regard to recycling is currently focused rather on
the amount of materials recycled (volume recycling), and has less focus on small flows of CRMs.
Moreover, EU end of life legislation should focus more on specific collection and recovery rates for
CRMs like cobalt. Other issues which need to be addressed include the insufficient amount of
information on CRMs which could be potentially recycled and the lack of disaggregated data on the
use of CRMs (Eurostat).
The Raw Materials Initiative is currently the umbrella policy framework in Europe under which business
and government policies alike are placed and aligned. Such framework proposes R&I lines to tackle the
different challenges along the (mineral) raw materials value chain and ensure a sustainable supply of
raw materials for the EU´s industry, tackling both primary and secondary CRMs. The EIP-RM via its SIP
presents the Strategy and the Action lines to develop it and is funded mainly by the H2020 programme
(though other programmes also contribute). The Circular Economy Strategy is the umbrella strategy
for all initiatives seeking to ensure the sustainable supply of CRMs via recycling and re-use.
EC-funded R&I initiatives have managed to establish close multi-stakeholder cooperations that are
implemented via multiple actions (research and coordination projects RIA/CSA, raw material
commitments, platforms, networks, etc.) and where the industry and its associated bodies, including
research institutes, are at the basis of research feeding into policy making.
The raw material trade policy and raw material diplomacy of the Commission is crucial for securing
the CRM supply (trade policy is a matter of EC, foreign policy partly as well a matter of EC). The EU and
the EC have considerably advanced the development of raw material trade policy and diplomacy –
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based on the Raw Material Initiative - with important CRM supplying countries, especially with China,
which is the major CRM supplier to the EU. Although, with respect to China, there still is a considerable
gap (cp. the WTO issue). In this way, we need to be aware that China is the largest CRM supplier
compared with other countries supplying mostly one, or two CRMs. (which also rises the question of
CRM potential in those countries)
However, there is room for improvement. First, the raw materials trade /diplomacy is related to
minerals as such i.e. not focused on CRMs. Second, there is a lack of bilateral agreements with some
key CRM suppliers (e.g. with Morocco for phosphate rock). On the other hand, the EC´s H2020
programme funds dozens of R&I projects that deal mainly with the 3rd pillar of the RMI, followed by
the 2nd pillar, while the 1st pillar shows a low level of consideration. These projects represent the largest
policy action and potential in innovative and cooperative solutions to a tackling of the challenges of
CRMs supply risk in the long term. On a parallel level, the manufacturing industry also implements
dynamic corporate policies and strategies focused on the three RMI pillars, but mainly using bilateral
trade agreements to ensure supply from imports and recycling/recovery and re-use of some CRMs,
especially PGMs from autocatalysts, which is an established business.
The EU framework conditions for a substantial increase in investments on domestic mineral
developments are still in need of further consolidation. The need of domestic (and imported) minerals
required for the European industry (including CRMs) is expected to remain high. However, mineral
investment criteria decisive to attract new investments still need to be improved: there is a lack of
access to risk finance for many exploration and extraction CRM projects (cp. D7.2), permitting
procedures still need to become more transparent, effective and predictable for investors, and the
issue of the social licence to operate and the insufficient public awareness of best available techniques
and the need for minerals have to be addressed (matter of national CRM policy framework). Projects
funded under H2020 or other instruments, such as MINATURA2020, MINLEX, BIOMORE or INTMET
(just to name a few, see a more comprehensive list in
Moreover, the European investment climate for mineral development projects still remains
unfavourable by the lack of a strong policy framework at EU level (top-down instrument) – matter of
implementation / communication between EC/MSs - that coordinates and fosters Member States to
discuss and find common solutions to the key issues that prevent the minerals sector (and specifically
investments towards CRMs) from achieving a level playing field in the EU´s internal market. H2020
projects like SCRREEN etc. contributes. However, it will be important that the impact of such projects
will be long-term which means that after the finalisation of these projects a prolongation of the
developed network (stakeholders from EC/MS/companies etc.) should be envisaged. The impact
should be measured. The idea could be (besides voluntary acting): financial means (project budget)
could be taken into account from the coordinator for keeping the network alive.
Initiatives by the EC in relation to the 3rd pillar are noteworthy ways to increase resource efficiency of
CRMs and are receiving much attention and funding. The H2020 and ERA-MIN network-funded
projects stand out. The industry is actively contributing to this via a broad participation in research and
networking platforms and projects and via new industry business models that are boosting
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substantially the recovery of precious metals, Co, PGMs, Ge, In, Sb, especially via integrated smelter-
refineries such as that of Umicore. Also, substitution, recovery and re-use/recycling is gradually
becoming part of European companies’ corporate strategies. However, very few efforts have been
identified in relation to eco-design policies or initiatives, also in the field of re-manufacturing. While
the 3rd Pillar is an important way forward to make Europe less dependent on imports of CRMs and to
improve the overall sustainability of our economy and society at large, one has to be aware of the
inherent risk, that unilaterally forcing such policy may create the false believe among public
stakeholders and policy-makers alike that mining in the future will become unnecessary. A simple
thermodynamic calculation will show that this cannot be the case.
Finally, it is also a question of the national CRM policy framework i.e. MSs level, to which decree are
the 3 pillars (equally) reflected (D7.2).
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grant agreement No 730227
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9 REFERENCES
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7. ERECON. “Strenghtening the European Rare Earths Supply-Chain. Challenges and Policy Options. Kooroshy, J., G. Tiess, A. Tukker, and A. Walton (Eds.).” ERECON Network, European Commission, 2015. http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/10882/attachments/1/translations.
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12. Klump, R. Wirtschaftspolitik, Instrumente, Ziele Und Institutionen. Pearson Deutschland GmbH, 2006.
13. Linden, E. “Marktrelevante Überlegungen Zur Rohstoffversorgung Und Zu Beteiligungen Im Internationalen Bergbau, Erzmetall [Market-Relevancy Considerations for Raw Materials Supply and Participation in International Mining].” Erzmetall 49 (1997): 761–68.
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grant agreement No 730227
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14. MinPol. “Legal Framework for Mineral Extraction and Permitting Procedures for Exploration and Exploitation in the EU. Final Report - Study.” Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, July 2017. https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/18c19395-6dbf-11e7-b2f2-01aa75ed71a1/language-en.
16. Reichl, C., M. Schatz, and G. Zsak. “World Mining Data. Welt Bergbau Daten.” Vienna: Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, 2017.
17. Reuter, M. A. The Metrics of Material and Metal Ecology: Harmonizing the Resource, Technology and Environmental Cycles. Amsterdam; London: Elsevier, 2005. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10138391.
18. Siebert, Horst. Ökonomische Theorie natürlicher Ressourcen (Economic Theory of Natural Resources). Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1983.
19. Tiess, Günter. General and International Mineral Policy: Focus: Europe. 1st Edition. Wien ; New York: Springer Vienna, 2011.
21. UNEP. “Recycling Rates of Metals - a Status Report. A Report of the Working Group on the Global Metal Flows to the International Resource Panel. Graedel, T.E.; Allwood, J.; Birat, J.-P.; Reck, B.K.; Sibley, S.F.; Sonnemann, G.; Buchert, M.; Hagelüken, C.,” 2011. http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/Portals/24102/PDFs/Metals_Recycling_Rates_110412-1.pdf.
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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10 ANNEX 1 – INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES
Table 3: International initiatives
Name Type and status
Focus / Aim Stakeholders Website
Minor Metals Association 49 Minor metals form the periodic table – among others some CRM
Trade
MMTA is a not-for-profit organisation, which serves to benefit and promote the interests of its international Membership, comprising companies actively involved in all aspects of the international minor metals sector.
Companies trading with minor metals https://mmta.co.uk/about-us/
Cobalt Development Institute (DCDI)
Co Promoting the responsible use of cobalt Industry http://www.thecdi.com/index.php
Solutions for Critical Raw Materials Under extreme conditions (CRM -ERTREME)
Cr, Y, Co, W, Nb Substitution
The Action focuses on the substitution of CRMs (such as Cr, Co, Nb, W, Y) in high value alloys and metal-matrix composites used under extreme conditions of temperature, loading, friction, wear, corrosion, in Energy, Transportation and Machinery manufacturing industries.
The Action aims to set up a network of expertise to define the state of knowledge and gaps in multi-scale modelling, synthesis, characterization, engineering design and recycling, that could find viable alternatives to CRMs and promote the industrial exploitation of substituted materials.
National Societies https://www.crm-extreme.eu
International Magnesium Association (IMA)
Mg The mission of the International Magnesium Association (IMA) is to promote the use of the metal magnesium in material selection and encourage innovative applications of the versatile metal. Through IMA's efforts, manufacturers and consumers are increasingly aware of the numerous options and benefits the metal magnesium provides.
Industry http://www.intlmag.org/page/about_ima
Tantalum-Niobium International Study Center – iTSCi Programme
Niobium Complete Supply chain - compliance, process improvement and sourcing from high risk areas
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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The iTSCi Programme assists companies with due diligence and responsible sourcing of minerals from high risk areas.
Programme activities are based around inclusivity and encouraging progressive improvement in the supply chain. The Programme aims to aid compliance with the US Dodd Frank Law, section 1502 on conflict minerals, in relation to the Rules published by the SEC but is not in itself a certification system. It also compliments other initiatives, including the CFSI's Conflict-Free Smelter audit programme (CFSP), the ICGLR's Regional Certification Initiative, and BGR's Certified Trading Chains Initiative (CTC).
Anglo American Platinum – EITI initiative
PGMs Extraction - Social Acceptance
Working with stakeholders in government, business and civil society to promote good governance, the responsible use of mineral wealth and to prevent corruption
Investors, employees, trade unions, customers, business partners, municipalities, goverments, NGO´s, educational institutions, local communities, media, etc.
China – Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
“Guidelines for formation of large enterprise groups of rare earth”
REE Mining and Smelting
Rare earth elements are highly strategic scarce resources and Chinese government clearly wants to have a tighter control of it. Early 2014, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued “Guidelines for formation of large enterprise groups of rare earth”. It requires by law that the china’s rare earth industry integrates and restructures into six large State-Owned-Enterprise (SOE) groups: China Aluminum Group, China Minmetals Group, Northern Rare Earth Group, Xiamen Tungsten Group, Southern (Ganzhou) Rare Earth Group and Guangdong Rare Earth Industry Group.
Industry http://www.semi.org/en/node/59291
Molycorp Metals and Alloys (MMA)
Mine to Magnet Business Model
REE Vertical Integration of supply chain
Downstream Development of downstream activities such as refining, rare earth metals alloying, and permanent magnet manufacturing.
Minimizing their environmental footprint during the separation phase of the process. Molycorp also designed a proprietary oxide separation process that would use fewer reagents and recycle the waste water
Cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R41347.pdf
(especially Page 14)
National Energy Technology Laboratory, US Dept of Energy
Alternate Extraction method development
REE Extraction.
The overall objective of this programme is to demonstrate the techno‐economic feasibility of domestic REE separation technologies by 2023‐2025. Technologies for recovering REEs are focused on separating REEs from coal and/or coal by‐products containing a minimum of 300 ppm total REEs.
This will be accomplished through conduct of laboratory REE separation projects and demonstration of concept feasibility at bench‐ scale through
Research centre, government https://www.netl.doe.gov/File%20Library/Research/Coal/Rare%20Earth%20Elements/REE-Project-Portfolio-2016.pdf
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pilot‐scale facilities, ultimately readying REE separations technology for commercial deployment.
Elkem Sustainability Document – EHS policy
Silicon Extraction - Sustainability
Elkem defines sustainability by reducing any negative environmental and/or social impacts of our activities to a minimum, complying with applicable, public regulations and at the same time build profitable and respected businesses. Elkem works systematically to maintain and improve a high standard on EHS (Environment, Health and Safety), energy efficiency, efficient natural resource utilisation and reduced emissions. A set of fundamental principles and tools, including the Elkem Business System (EBS) and our governing documents help us reach our goals
Industry https://www.elkem.com/sustainability/
Environmentals Ltd.
Silica extraction from geothermal fluids
Silicon Extraction and Processing – Environment friendly alternative technique
EVM has developed process technology for the removal of silica from waste geothermal fluids that have already been used for power generation. This technology comprises two main sub-systems: extraction and processing.
The extraction plant is located adjacent to the geothermal power plant and extracts silica from the reinjection fluids
Industry http://www.environmetals.co.nz/about
Solarsilicon Recycling Services (SRS)
Silicon Recycling
The role of SRS is to recycle unusable and off-spec silicon and process it into usable feedstock for the solar and semiconductor industries.
Industry http://www.solarsilicon.com/
Texas Instruments – Silicon End use Manufacturing company
Reuse Policy
Silicon Reuse of Silicon Scrap
Scrap silicon wafers: Silicon wafers are the foundation for the development of TI's semiconductor products. Many silicon wafers are reused as "test wafers" in the manufacturing processes. When these wafers reach the end of their useful life, the remaining silicon is sold – still a valuable raw material in this form – as scrap to solar-panel fabricators
Industry http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/csr/materials_management.html
International Tungsten Industry Association (ITIA)
Tungsten Prommotion and data collection of tungsten value chain. Industry www.itia.info
Tungco.
Scrap recycling
Tungsten Recycling
Tungsten carbide recovery and recycling with minimum wastage policy. Tungsten carbide reclamation and raw feed supply method
Industry http://tungco.com/
WF Youngsun
(HONGKONG WOLFRAM INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT CO., LTD)
Tungsten Production
The conflict free minerals policy of Vietnam Youngsun Tungsten Industry Co., Ltd is to avoid the use of conflict minerals which directly or indirectly finance or benefit armed groups in the conflict-affected regions such as Democratic
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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Raw material sourcing policy
Republic of Congo or adjoining countries, in line with full compliance to the Industry Code of Conduct.
In the implementation of their policies covering the sourcing of raw materials for the manufacture of Ferro-tungsten, it follows the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High Risk Areas, and the TI-CMC Conflict Mineral Council Framework
Wolf Minerals
Sustainable Production
Tungsten Environment
Wolf Minerals has identified the environmental aspects associated with its Production operations and has adopted a policy of responsible, proactive environmental management
Industry http://www.wolfminerals.com.au/irm/company/showpage.aspx/PDFs/2154_0/EnvironmentalPolicyMarch2016
Public-Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade (PPA)
Tungsten, (Tin, Tantalum, Gold)
Suppy chain support
The PPA is a multi-sector and multi-stakeholder initiative to support supply chain solutions to conflict minerals challenges in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Great Lakes Region (GLR) of Central Africa. The PPA provides funding and coordination support to organizations working within the region to develop verifiable conflict-free supply chains; align due diligence programs and practices; encourage responsible sourcing from the region; promote transparency; and bolster in-region civil society and governmental capacity.
Network. Ongoing Created by industry to advocate the importance of CRMs for the European economy and to promote a strong European CRM policy. It is the representative body of primary producers, traders and associations of CRMs.
Industry, traders, associations, policy-makers.
The Alliance oversee an MEP Interest Group on Critical Raw Materials to connect industry with policy-makers through bi-annual political luncheon events.
http://criticalrawmaterials.org
ETP on Sustainable Mineral Resources (SMR)
R&I support of CRM value chain
Network. Ongoing The European Technology Platform on Sustainable Mineral Resources (ETP SMR) Mission is to develop long-term European Minerals Industries Research and Innovation agendas and roadmaps for action at EU and national level.
Today the ETP SMR members are 40 located in 16 countries in Europe and beyond. The ETP SMR members are major players from Industry, Research Institutes, Geological Surveys, Academia, and National and European Associations. They are united to address the future technological and societal challenges of the mineral sector, in order to jointly act towards a common vision.
http://www.etpsmr.org/?page_id=6
ERANET/ERAMIN CRM substitution Funding channel One of the main tasks of the ERA-MIN project is to define a research agenda on innovative technologies and solutions to make European industry less dependent on supply of raw materials from outside Europe. This research agenda will be the basis for the first calls generated by the ERA-MIN consortium and will be used as input for the
The ERA-MIN research agenda focusses on five areas:
• Exploration, extraction and processing of primary resources (in Europe)
• Recycling of EOL products, industrial waste and tailings
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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Horizon 2020 program, European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials and the many related programmes, projects and initiatives in the field of raw materials.
• Substitution of critical materials in engineered materials and products
• Business models to support sustainable use of materials
• Cooperation, public teaching and education
ERA-MIN and substitution The ERA-MIN research agenda on substitution is developed by a working group of industrial and academic experts led by the Materials innovation institute (M2i) in the Netherlands.
Development of REE Primary Supply, Resource Efficiency, Recycling, End User Industry
Network. Finished. To address the issue of rare earth elements' supply, the European Commission has brought together experts to form a European Rare Earths Competency Network. The three Working Groups of ERECON were focused on:
• opportunities and road blocks for primary supply of rare earths in Europe;
• European rare earths resource efficiency and recycling;
• European end-user industries and rare earths supply trends and challenges.
ERECON comprises a network of over 80 leading European rare earths experts from industry, academia, and policy who have come together to look at ways of improving rare earth supply security for Europe.
ALBATROSS CRM Exploration
Cost effective technology to evaluate and explore SeaFloor Massive Sulphide Deposits
Raw Material Commitment
This project contributes to develop cost-effective technologies to evaluate Seafloor Massive Sulphides deposits (SMS), considered as “the most promising” by Blue Growth, and enables sustainable access to resources in EU States Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).
The Critical Raw Material Recovery project is working to ensure that a wider range of minerals and metals are recovered during recycling of waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) in Europe.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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Each year around 9.9 tonnes of WEEE is generated in the EU. WEEE is a rich potential source of recovered materials. Due to poor collection and recycling rates and processes that can only recover a small number of materials many critical and valuable materials are lost from the system.
RAW-NANOVALUE CRM Substitution
Knowledge and Technology Platform for substituting Critical Raw Material by using nanotechnology
Raw Material Commitment
The aim of this commitment in the field of CRMs is three fold:
1) On the one hand, the creation of a collaborative network of expertise to develop new materials, products and technologies based on nanotechnology, by connecting fundamental and applied research with the aim of substituting or reducing the need of CRMs in strategic EU industrial value chains relying on nanotechnology
2) The establishment of a platform of knowledge and technology transfer linked to EU-NANOFUTURES common to scientists, engineers, technologists, and European industry. The combination of different expertise can be expected to give rise to beneficial synergistic effects along the whole value chain in Nanotechnology involving CRMs, which could result in a significant scientific, technological and economic progress for EU.
3) Create a true link aligning the nanotechnology EU roadmaps with the SIP of the EIP in raw materials
Energy efficient and environmentally sound solutions for CRM Recycling and Recovery
Raw Material Commitment
The project aims to develop and demonstrate cost-effective, resource and energy efficient and environmentally sound solutions for recycling and recovery of valuable raw materials considering both preprocessing and metallurgical refinery technologies.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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HydroWEEE CRM Recovery/ Extraction
Development of highly efficient and mobile extraction plants for Critical Raw Materials such as Indium, Manganese etc.
Raw Material Commitment
The idea is to develop a mobile plant using hydrometallurgical processes to extract metals such as Copper, Manganese, Zinc, Yttrium, Indium , … in a high purity (above 95%). By making this plant mobile (in a container) several SMEs can benefit from the same plant at different times and therefore limit the necessary quantities of waste as well as investments. In addition, this new HydroWEEE process will produce pure enough materials that they can be directly used by end-users for electroplating.
The HydroWEEE consortium has 9 partners from 4 countries - 3 EU Member States (Austria, Italy and Romania) and a Western Balkan Country (Serbia).
http://www.4980.timewarp.at/sat/hydroWEEE
Mud2Metal CRM Recovery Raw Material Commitment
ongoing
The Mud2Metal consortium will seek to develop both the fundamental knowledge and the applied technology for recovery of metals from the BR. Fundamental knowledge production into the interactions of the metal oxides in the BR and their potential separation methods will be pursued through industrially sponsored PhD programmes with collaborating university departments. Applied technologies will be developed through focused RTD projects
PROMETIA R&D for CRM processing, Extraction and Recycling
Raw Material Commitment
PROMETIA is an international non-profit association promoting innovation in mineral processing and extractive metallurgy for mining and recycling of raw materials.
The Association aims to strengthen European technical skills and industrial know-how in raw materials processing and support industrial and economic development by:
• promoting an easier access for industrial partners to the most relevant and competent European R&D teams as well as to services & facilities for up-scaling metallurgical and mineral processes in Europe
• promoting the most innovative cutting-edge scientific results from European research teams towards industrial partners
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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• facilitating the visibility and access of all the partners to various funding opportunities
• ADE (Agencia de Innovacion, Financiacion e Internacionalizacion Empresarial de Castilla y Leon)
ENCRAM CRM Sustainability
Expert Network to develop long term sustainability of CRMs
Raw Material Commitment
ongoing
ECRAM aims at gathering the different initiatives (associations, clusters, projects…) working on CRMs into an Expert Network on Critical Raw Materials. The network includes public entities and civil society representatives, in order to allow a multi-stakeholder dialogue on a topic with such key societal, economic, geopolitical and environmental implications. The first objective of ENCRAM is to establish this long-lasting Expert Network on CRM and to define the way it can be operated after the end of the Project and gain its sustainability.
EQUATOR
CRM Substitution
Substitution of Antimony to reduce import dependency
Raw Material Commitment
Substitution. Employ of Waste instead of Quarry for sUbstitution of AnTimOny as fire Retardant additive
Knowledge and Innovation Community on Raw Materials (KIC on RMs)
ongoing A KIC is a highly integrated, creative and excellence-driven partnership which brings together the fields of education, technology, research, business and entrepreneurship, in order to produce new innovations and new innovation models that inspire others to emulate it. They are to become key drivers of sustainable economic growth and competitiveness across Europe through world-leading innovation. The KICs will be driving effective “translation” between partners in ideas, technology, culture, and business models, and will create new business for existing industry and for new endeavours.
KIC includes over 120 companies, universities, and research institutes all over Europe. From Finland KIC participants are Outotec, Metso, Spinverse, DIMECC, Aalto University, Oulu University, Lappeenranta University of Technology, VTT, and GTK. EIT Raw Materials’ has co-locations in Espoo, Luleå Sweden, Leuven Belgium, Wroclaw Poland, Metz France, and Rome Italy, and the headquarters in Berlin Germany.
European recycling platform
CRM Recycling Our mission is to develop high-quality, cost-effective recycling services for the benefit of
ERP now manages a consolidated network and has developed vast international expertise,
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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producer members, consumers and ultimately the environment and society. Our network and expertise ensures compliance for producers and importers allowing them to focus on their core business.
As well as consolidating our presence throughout Europe, ERP is currently working to expand its expertise into new territories, such as the recently activated Turkey and Israel, and looking to develop new recycling services (such as consumables).
expanding its recycling services to include batteries as well as packaging.
ERP is the only approved pan-European organization that is trusted by over 2,700 members worldwide and the first in the market offering compliance for WEEE, batteries and packaging in over 32 countries.
European Advanced Recycling network
CRM Recycling ongoing EARN is at home in all European countries: our company comprises a mulicultural, mulilingual work environment made up of many different nations. With a small team in Goslar, Germany, but a large circle of colleagues throughout Europe, we master new logistics and communication challenges every day.
EARN manages the WEEE compliance of more than a hundred EEE producers, among them some well-known global players from the IT hardware sector.
http://www.earn-service.com/
European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform (ESPP)
CRM Sustainability
Knowledge Transfer and Networking Platform for promoting sustainability of Phosphorous
ongoing Phosphorus is a non-renewable resource, non-substitutable for food production, essential for agriculture and directly linked to food security, as well as being important in a range of other industrial and technical uses. The world’s mineral phosphate resources are finite, but there is debate about their extent and extractability and about their geographical concentration. However, with ongoing international pressure on raw materials and food production, the need for phosphorus stewardship will endure. At the same time, phosphorus losses pose major environmental issues. Phosphorus is the principal substance contributing to eutrophication and surface water quality failure in much of Europe, whilst Europe’s population eats around twice as much phosphorus as is required for good health.
This Phosphorus Challenge was taken up by the European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform (ESPP). ESPP ensures knowledge sharing, experience transfer and networking for opportunities in the
The Members of ESPP cover a wide range of actors across the whole value chain of phosphorus stewardship: phosphorus mining and processing, water and waste treatment, food, feed and agriculture, phosphorus reuse and recycling, innovation and technology providers, knowledge institutions, NGOs and governmental organizations.
ESPP regulatory activities:
• Authorisations of struvite / recovered phosphates as fertilisers in different EU countries
• EU Fertiliser Regulation recast: taking recovered nutrient products into account in the EU Fertiliser Regulatin revision
• Organic Farming Regulation: proposed validation of recycled P products (struvite, calcined phosphates)
• REACH (EU chemicals regulation)
• Best available techniques (BAT) BREFs (Industrial Emissions Directive)
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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field of phosphorus management, facilitates discussion between the market, stakeholders and regulators, addresses regulatory obstacles, contributes to policy proposals, circulates information by newsletters, website, conferences and publications, promotes Platform Members’ activities, and contributes to define a long-term vision for phosphorus sustainability in Europe.
• Best management practices (BEMPs): EMAS (EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme Regulation) “agriculture”
• EU Critical Raw Materials list
• Quality standards
• Nitrates Directive
Eco-innovation observatory
CRM Information Assistance for Market Development
"Eco-innovation is the introduction of any new or significantly improved product (good or service), process, organisational change or marketing solution that reduces the use of natural resources (including materials, energy, water and land) and decreases the release of harmful substances across the whole life-cycle."
Eco-innovation offers a huge market for enterprises and has become one of the cornerstones of the European Union strategy in response to the global environmental and economic challenges being faced.
It is recognised in many studies and policy documents that developing eco-innovation capabilities and practices has significant commercial potential across all economic sectors. At the same time, reducing uncertainly about future market developments will help boost investment and accelerate innovation in environmental technologies, products and services.
To facilitate this market development, the Eco-Innovation Observatory (EIO) aims to provide a much-needed integrated information source on eco-innovation for companies and innovation service providers, as well as providing a solid decision-making basis for policy development.
The Eco-Innovation Observatory provides a platform for the structured collection and analysis of an extensive range of eco-innovation
The Eco-Innovation Observatory is delivered by a core consortium of five organisations, supported by an Expert Group and a stakeholder Steering Group.
Expert Group members:
Martin Charter – Director of The Centre for Sustainable Design at University for the Creative Arts and a former Visiting Professor of Sustainable Product Design at UCA before joining full-time.
Prof. Dr. René Kemp - professor of innovation and sustainable development at the ICIS institute of Maastricht University and professorial fellow of UNU-MERIT in Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Xavier Leflaive - a principal administrator at the OECD Environment Directorate. He developed country profiles of non European OECD countries and China on policies to support eco-innovation.
Birgit Munck-Kampmann - the Director of the European Topic Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ETC/SCP)
Dr. Klaus Rennings - senior researcher at the ZEW since 1994 and vice-head of the department "Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management".
Prof. Dr. Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek - a founder and the president of Factor 10 Institute and the Laureate of Takeda Global Environment Award 2001(with E. von Weizsäcker).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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information, gathered from across the European Union and key economic regions around the globe.
Interrogation of this unique database, combined with input from experts and practitioners in the field, will allow the development of unparalleled understanding of eco-innovation processes and developments over the past two decades and the determination of likely future trends for the next 20 years.
Markku Wilenius - has been working in Finland Futures Research Centre since 1996, where he has served as a director and responsible for research. He has been professor of futures studies in Turku School of Economics since 2004. In 2007 he was appointed the head of strategic research and development at Allianz SE, world´s leading private insurance company based in Munich, Germany.
European Tech Platform for Sustainable Chemistry
CRM Long Term Sustainabililty
SusChem is the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry. It is a forum that brings together industry, academia, policy makers and the wider society.
SusChem’s vision is for a competitive and innovative Europe where sustainable chemistry and biotechnology together provide solutions for future generations.
SusChem’s mission is to initiate and inspire European chemical and biochemical innovation to respond effectively to societal’s challenges by providing sustainable solutions.
SusChem was founded by six European bodies representing the main stakeholders from academia and industry in the chemical sciences sector.
The six founding partners were:
• Cefic – European Chemical Industry Council
• DECHEMA – German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
• ESAB – European Federation of Biotechnology Section of Applied Biocatalysis
• EuropaBio – the European Association for Bioindustries
• GDCh – the German Chemical Society
• RSC – Royal Society of Chemistry (UK)
http://www.suschem.org
European Technology Platforms for Advanced Engineering Materials and Technologies (ETP- EuMAT)
ongoing EuMaT – European Technology Platform for Advanced Engineering Materials and Technologies – has been launched in order to assure optimal involvement of industry and other important stakeholders in the process of establishing of R&D priorities in the area of advanced engineering materials and technologies. EuMaT should improve coherence in existing and forthcoming EU projects, in the field of materials R&D.
EuMaT covers all elements of the life-cycle of an industrial product, despite it is a component, a system or a final goods.
The main goal of EuMaT is to contribute to the best relation and dialogue between industry, R&D actors
EuMaT includes members from:
• Industry (large, medium and small, embracing the whole production and supply chain, including component, equipment and sub-system suppliers, service providers and user industries; those involved in technology transfer; also, industry associations)
• Public authorities (regulators and policy makers, funding agencies; in the particular notified and licensing bodies)
• Scientific and Technical Community (apart for education and research also those involved in innovation and interested in the issue of European Innovation Area);
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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and institutions aiming at improving the coordination and synergies at national and European level in the field of Materials R&D. The primary objective of EuMaT is to produce the Strategic Research Agenda which, with appropriate involvement of industry and other main stakeholders will provide basis for
• identification of needs and
• establishing priorities in the area of advanced materials and technologies.
• Associations and Consortia from other EU projects
• Financial community (private banks including the EIB, the European Investment Fund EIF, venture capital, etc.; in particular supporting SME’s)
• Civil society, including users and consumers (involving the also the future customers, e.g. through associations).
New InnoNet Network/platform. Ongoing.
NEW_InnoNet’s main goal is to mobilise stakeholders towards joint efforts aimed at implementing circular economy approaches and thus develop and reinforce solid foundations for building the European Near-Zero Waste Platform.
http://www.newinnonet.eu/?artid=10
International Antimony Association (i2a). (It is a Belgian non-profit industry Association)
CRM Regulation and Information Assistance Platform to discuss benefits, safety concerns, global health and environmental regulation related to Antimony
Antimony Health and Environment International Antimony Association (i2a) conducts studies and to disseminate information concerning the safety and benefits of antimony and antimony compounds, by way of giving access to data, sharing and providing information on the content of data, for the benefit of producers and importers of antimony and antimony compounds world-wide regarding environmental, health and safety regulations of these antimony compounds
International Antimony Association (i2a). (It is a Belgian non-profit industry Association)
Beryllium Science and Technology Association (BeST)
[nonprofit organization based in Brussels operating under Belgium law]
CRM Regulation and Information Assistance Platform to discuss and promote economical and social benefit of Berryllium
Beryllium Supply and Trade BeST represents the suppliers of Beryllium in the EU market, as well as traders and industries who rely on the unique properties of beryllium to design for miniaturisation, energy conservation, greater reliability and longer product life.
Promoting beryllium as a critical element for modern society, with economic and societal benefits
Beryllium Science and Technology Association (BeST)
[nonprofit organization based in Brussels operating under Belgium law]
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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Research and statistical centre, to aggregate and publish statistics and other relevant market information
International Tungsten Industry Association
(ITIA) (London-based)
HSE Committee guidelines
CRM Regulation and Information Assistance
Platform to assist Supiers for information regarding registration and regulatory intervention
Tungsten Health and Environment To assist its members and the industry as a whole, ITIA set up the Tungsten Consortium to compile the necessary registration dossier required by the EU REACH, among other regulatory interventions in the EU.
http://www.itia.info/hse-regulatory.html
European Carbon and Graphite Association
CRM Policy and Legislation Evaluation
Coking Coal,
Natural Graphite
Health, Safety and Environment Evaluation of the impact of European policies and legislation on the industry and define common positions and actions
European Carbon and Graphite Association
European Borates Association
CRM Regulation and Sustainable Development
Borates Health, Safety and Environment
Sustainable development
The activities of the association have particular emphasis on health and safety, environment, and sustainable development. It is a member of IMA - Europe, the European Industrial Minerals Association
European Borates Association
ECHA European Chemicals Agency
Table 5: EU–level CRM relevant actions
Life-cycle phase / strategy Project name (acronym) Status (As of March 2017)
Link to CRM CRM, it applies to / Aims URL
All phases / data management
EU Raw Materials Knowledge Base / Raw Materials Information System (RMIS).
Ongoing CRM Information Assistance & Sustainable growth of the Sector
All CRMs. The JRC RMIS provides a structured repository of information on raw materials. Its overarching aim is to help strengthening the competitiveness and visibility of the EU raw materials sector, while promoting green and
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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sustainable growth. The EU Raw Materials Scoreboard is an integral part of RMIS.
MICA Minerals
Intelligence Capacity Analysis
Ongoing CRM Information Assistance Integrated Information on the complete supply Chain of CRM
All CRMs. The Minerals Intelligence Capacity Analysis (MICA) Project responds to the need to build a Raw Materials Knowledge Base at EU level, contributing to past and ongoing efforts by several EU projects and as part of the transitional phase towards this goal. The overall objective of MICA is to provide stakeholders with the best possible information, in a seamless and flexible way using an ontology-based platform, the European Union Raw Materials Intelligence Capacity Platform (EU-RMICP).
http://www.mica-project.eu/
EREAN - European Rare Earth Magnet Recycling Network (FP7 Marie-Curie Initial Training Network Project)
Start 2013 - ongoing
CRM Life Cycle Assessment, Recycling and Sustainability
Innovative Approaches in the Rare Earth Element sector for Recycling, Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainabilty
REE. EREAN will train 15 young researchers in the science and technology of rare earths, with emphasis on the recycling of these elements from permanent magnets. An intensive intersectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration has been established in the EREAN consortium, which covers the full materials loop, from urban mine to magnet. By training the researchers in basic and applied rare-earth sciences, with emphasis on extraction and separation methods and rare-earth metallurgy, sustainable materials management, recycling methods, life-cycle assessment (LCA), and the principles of urban mining, they will become the much needed "rare earthers" for employment in the growing European rare-earth industry.
http://erean.eu/
SETIS – Strategic Energy Technologies Information System
Ongoing CRM Information Assisstance
Information on energy technologies and
All CRMs. SETIS is the online Information System for the European Strategic Energy Technology (SET)-Plan. It provides support for the effective strategic planning, conception and implementation of the European Energy Technology policy. It enables monitoring of the SET-Plan actions and activities,
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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capacities of innovation in the sector
assessment of its impact on policy and the identification of corrective measures if needed. SETIS represents a common tool for information and data exchange on energy technologies and capacities for innovation between the European Commission, Member States, research community, international organisations and other actors in the energy sectors.
Study on
Data for a Raw Material System Analysis: Roadmap and Test of the
Fully Operational MSA for Raw Materials
Finished (2015) CRM Information Assistance
Info on Material System Analysis
All CRMs. The main objective of the present project is to respond to the needs of information on non-energy material flows and to assist the European Commission on the development of a full Material System Analysis (MSA) for several key raw materials in the European Union
ProSUM – Prospecting Secondary raw materials from the Urban Mine and Mining waste
Ongoing (2015-2017)
CRM Information Assisstance
Information on availability of primary and secondary raw material data
The ProSUM project will deliver the First Urban Mine Knowledge Data Platform, a centralised database of all available data and information on arisings, stocks, flows and treatment of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), end-of-life vehicles (ELVs), batteries and mining wastes. The availability of primary and secondary raw materials data, easily accessible in one platform, will provide the foundation for improving Europe’s position on raw material supply, with the ability to accommodate more wastes and resources in future. ProSUM will provide data for improving the management of these wastes and enhancing the resource efficiency of collection, treatment and recycling. Funded by the EC and the Swiss government.
http://www.prosumproject.eu/
All phases / raw material policy MIN-GUIDE Ongoing CRM Policy Development for Long Term Sustainability
All CRM. The MIN-GUIDE project addresses the need for a secure and sustainable supply of minerals in Europe by developing a ‘Minerals Policy Guide’. The functioning of European economies and, consequently, the well-being of societies is highly dependent on the long-term supply of natural
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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resources and raw materials for production and use. To secure minerals supply in Europe a policy frameworkis needed promoting innovative and sustainable approaches to tackles challenges in the mining value chain. The project will link to the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials (EIP) by feeding back its results into EU policy process, and supports outreach activities and community building.
MINATURA2020 Ongoing (2015-2018)
CRM Policy Development for Future Best Use
ALL CRMs: The overall objective of this project is to develop a concept and methodology for the definition and subsequent protection of “mineral deposits of public importance” in order to ensure their “best use” in the future and to be included in a harmonised European regulatory/guidance/policy framework.
http://minatura2020.eu/
MINLAND Ongoing (2018-2020)
Linking land use planning to ensure access to areas containing mineral resources, including a specific focus on CRMs
All CRMs. The MINLAND project was designed to secure the access to land for exploration and extraction of minerals, including critical raw materials
No website yet
Exploration NewOreS Ongoing (2015-2018)
CRM Exploration
Model development for Exploraration of Low Grade Ore Deposits
Development of New models for the genesis of Rare Metal (W, Nb, Ta, Li) Ore deposits from the European Variscan Belt and valorization of low grade and fine grained ore and mine tailings
No website identified
SOLSA - An Innovative Project for Sustainable Exploration Technologies and Geomodels
Ongoing (2016-2019)
CRM Exploration
Automated system for on site optimisation of Exploration Process
SOLSA is the first automated expert system for on-site cores analysis. With access to data on-line, great savings are expected on the number of drill holes, the accuracy of geo-models and economic evaluation of ore reserves.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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Efficient Technology to extract low grade ores of Critical Raw Materials such as Cobalt, Antimony, Indium.
of mineral deposits (including recycling of metals in tailings and metallurgical wastes) in Europe and elsewhere
FAME - Flexible And Mobile Economic processing technologies
Ongoing, finishes in 2018
CRM extraction
Innovative technology combination for small tonnage ores (skarn, greisen and pegmatite) which carry significant CRM potential
http://www.fame-project.info/
MetNet Finished. 2014-2016
European Pilot Plant Network for Extractive
Metallurgy and Mineral Processing
http://metnet.eu/
METGROW+ Ongoing CRM Processing and Beneficiation
Innovative technology for processing Low grade primary and secondary raw materials and polymetallic waste
Co, In, Ga, Ge. METGROW+ will address and solve bottlenecks in the European raw materials supply by developing innovative metallurgical technologies for unlocking the use of potential domestic raw materials. Within this project, both primary and secondary materials are studied as potential metal resources. Economically important nickel-cobalt deposits, low grade polymetallic wastes and iron containing sludges (goethite, jarosite,etc.) which are currently not yet being exploited due to technical bottlenecks are in focus. Concurrently, METGROW+ targets innovative processes to extract important metals including Ni, Cu, Zn, Co, In, Ga, Ge in a cost-effective way.
http://metgrowplus.eu/
BIOMORE CRM Extraction
New Methods to extract deposits at high depth
REE. The BIOMOre project focuses on extracting metals from deep mineralised zones via refined economic and ecological methods.
REE. The main goal of the EURARE project is to set the basis for the development of a European Rare Earth Element (REE) industry. It will safeguard the
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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Safeguarding uninterrupted supply of Rare Earth Minerals with ensuring economic and environmental viability
uninterrupted supply of REE raw materials and products crucial for sectors of the EU economy (including automotive, electronics, machinery and chemicals) in a sustainable, economically viable and environmentally friendly way.
Blue Nodules Ongoing (2014-2018)
CRM Extraction
Deep sea mining methods for extracting critical raw materials from pollymetallic nodules in the sea floor
CRMs contained in polymetallic nodules (cobalt, gallium, REE). Develop a deep sea mining system for the harvesting of polymetallic nodules from the sea floor with minimum environmental impact
http://www.blue-nodules.eu/
SCALE Ongoing (2016-2020)
CRM Extraction
Extraction from secondary Sources such as Metal by Products
Production of Scandium compounds and Scandium Aluminum alloys from European metallurgical by-products
http://scale-project.eu/
Substitution CritCat Ongoing (2016-2019)
CRM Substitution
Substitution of Platinum Group Metals
PGMs. aims to provide solutions for the substitution of critical metals, especially rare platinum group metals (PGMs), used in heterogeneous and electrochemical catalysis
http://www.critcat.eu/summary
Flintstone2020 CRM Substitution
Substitution of Tungsten and Cobalt in the hard material tool industry
W, Co. aims to provide a perspective for the replacement of two important CRMs – tungsten (W) and cobalt (Co) – which are the main constituents for two important classes of hard materials (cemented carbides/WC-Co, and PCD/diamond-Co), by developing innovative alternative solutions for tooling operating under extreme conditions.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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IRENA - Finished (2013-2017)
CRM Substitution
In. Indium replacement by single-walled carbon nanotube thin films
http://irena.aalto.fi/
CRM-Extreme CRM Substitution
Substitution of CRMs in components and coatings used under extreme conditions. Funded by a COST action (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).
http://www.crm-extreme.eu/WP/
FREECATS Finished (2012-2015)
CRM Substitution
Substitution of PGM by Metal Free catalysts for the automotive industry
PGMs. Metal-free catalysts in the place of metal-based catalysts. FREECATS focused on the development of catalysts for fuel cells, olefin production and water treatment. Replacing platinum-based catalysts in these three technologies will lead to a significant reduction in the high demand in Europe – in particular, the automotive industry's demand.
This proposal aims at developing a new generation of novel materials for high performance permanent magnets (PM) with energy product 60 kJ/m3 <(BH)max < 160 kJ/m3, which do not contain any rare-earths or platinum.
W, Co. Upscaling of FAST sintering processes for the substitution of critical materials: W and Co
https://www.fastram.eu/
INFINITY - Indium-Free Transparent Conductive Oxides for Glass and Plastic Substrates
Ongoing (2014-2018)
CRM Substitution
Substitution of Indium products by inorganic alternatives
In. INFINITY will develop an inorganic alternative to a scarce and high cost material, indium tin oxide (ITO), currently used as a Transparent Conductive Coating (TCC) for display electrodes on glass and plastic substrates. The novel conductive materials to be developed in this project will be based on low cost sol-gel chemistry using more widely available metallic elements and will leverage recent advances in nanostructured coatings.
https://infinity-h2020.eu/
INREP - Towards Indium free TCOs On-going (2015-2018)
CRM Substitution
Substituting Indium based transparent conductive
In. The goal of INREP is to develop and deploy valid and robust alternatives to indium (In) based ransparent conductive electrode materials as electrodes. In-based materials, mainly ITO, are technologically entrenched in the commercial
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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Life-cycle phase / strategy Project name (acronym) Status (As of March 2017)
Link to CRM CRM, it applies to / Aims URL
electrode with a different material
manufacture of components such as LEDs (both organic and inorganic), solar cells, touch-screens, so replacing them with In-free transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) will require holistic approach
Reduction DRREAM Finished (2013-2016)
CRM Demand Reduction
Reducing use of Rare Earth Elements
(drastically) reduce the use of rare earth elements in the life-cycle of technologies that use magnetic phase change materials
http://www.drream.eu/
PARTIAL-PGMs On-going (2016-2020)
CRM Demand Reduction
Designing Catalysts which require less amount of CRMs
rational design of catalysts with low critical raw materials content, for the development of novel automotive after treatment and the reduction of toxic and pollutant emissions from cars
http://www.partial-pgms.eu/
PROMINE Nano-particle products from new mineral resources in Europe (FP7)
Finished (2010-2013)
CRM Resource Management and Stockpiling
Technological Innovation to improve CRM Material Flow, develop all possible CRM production techniques using primary, secondary sources and waste generated
NEEI is clearly a significant contributor to the economy of the EU. The use of primary raw materials in the products of other branches of EU industry means they have a central role in guaranteeing industrial and economic sustainability. Nevertheless, current demand exceeds production, and Europe is totally dependent on imports for some high-tech metals e.g. cobalt, niobium, rhenium, rare earth elements, platinum and titanium. In the development of state-of-the-art technologies and advanced products, high-tech metals have a crucial significance. Also, the demand for critical raw materials could more than triple by 2030. It is a matter of high importance to put a strong effort in the identification of all the possible resources to be used in the production chain, waste generated and stockpiled in EU as resource stock, establishing an overview of the existing and relevant material flow, and in that way improving competitiveness.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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Recovery AMDREY – Extraction of Earth Elements from Acid Mine Drainage
Finished (2015-2016)
CRM Recovery (Extraction from Secondary Sources)
Extraction of Rare Earth Element from Acid Mine Water
REE. The ultimate objective of the proposal is the extraction of REY from the treatment of Acid Mine Water (AMD). This is an unwanted pollution that is expected to flow out from coal and sulphide mines for hundreds of years.
ERAMIN-funded project.
ENVIREE - ENVIronmentally friendly and efficient methods for extraction of Rare Earth
Elements from secondary sources
On-going (2015-2017)
CRM Recovery (Extraction from Secondary Sources)
Extraction of Rare Earth Element from waste sources
REE. The ENVIREE project develops processes making it possible to extract REE from different types of secondary sources currently handled as waste. The developed leaching processes will be more environmentally friendly than the current ones, thus making REE extraction possible in Europe again. ERAMIN-funded project.
http://www.enviree.eu/home/
CHROMIC On-going (2016-2020)
CRM Recovery (Extraction from Secondary Sources)
Extraction from by-product metals
Chromium, vanadium, molybdenum and niobium. The CHROMIC project aims to unlock the potential of these resources thanks to a smart combination of existing methods and new technological innovation. With new chemical and physical methods CHROMIC partners wants to develop new recovering systems for these by-product metals.
http://www.chromic.eu/
CRM Recovery CRM Recovery (Extraction from Secondary Sources)
Precious metals. Collection and recovery trials of WEEE. Funded via the LIFE instrument of the EC.
Recovery of CRMs such as Antimony, Graphite from high grade plastic products, electrical equipment
Integrated solutions for pre-processing electronic equipment, closing the loop of post-consumer high-grade plastics, and advanced recovery of critical raw materials antimony and graphite
http://closeweee.eu/
Recovery and sustainable design Remaghic - New Recovery Processes to produce Rare Earth -Magnesium
On-going (2015-2018)
CRM Recovery/ Recycling
REE, magnesium alloys. REMAGHIC is focused on contributing to Europe’s rare earth recovery and
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730227
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Alloys of High Performance and Low Cost.
Low cost and efficient REE, Magnesium Recovery Technology
magnesium recycling technologies, improving the efficiencies of these processes and advancing the technology readiness levels for a new generation of industrial processes that will produce new low cost competitive alloys for a wide variety of sectors across Europe’s manufacturing value chain.
REECOVER On-going (2014-)
CRM Recovery/ Recycling from Waste
Recovery of Rare Earth Elements from magnetic waste in the WEEE recycling industry and tailings from the iron ore industry
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement No 730227
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12 ANNEX 3 – STRATEGIES AND INITIATIVES TO INCREASE THE RESOURCE EFFICIENCY
12.1.1 SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN (DESIGN FOR RECYCLING)
Sustainability design is a design for recycling or re-use via cradle-to-cradle179 thinking. The design of
products for recycling (also called eco-design, design for resource efficiency, among other different
names) means designing products from a life-cycle approach, where responsible extraction and
material use are as much a concern, as what can be done with products after the end-of-use stage. In
other words, this means that the design of products and services is not only defined by their
functionality and aesthetics, but also by their environmental impact, especially their resource
consumption or their impact on the climate. Better design can make products more durable or easier
to repair, upgrade or remanufacture. In the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) concept (also called zero waste) this
means how to keep materials in closed cycles, either biological or technical. It is not about ‘doing more
with less’ and reducing waste (cradle to grave), but about ‘doing right from scratch.’
Moreover, a good ‘design for recycling’ may eliminate the use of (hazardous) substances that hamper
recycling processes (e.g., mercury in backlights of LCD monitors) and ensures the accessibility of critical
components. An example of an easily accessible component is the car catalyst (the main source of
secondary PGMs), which can be cut from the exhaust system prior to shredding and fed into the
appropriate recycling chain. The opposite is the case for most car electronics, which are widely
distributed over the vehicle and thus are seldom removed prior to shredding. Consequently, most
technology metals contained in car electronics are lost during the shredding process180.
The policy recommendations of the ERECON network also suggested that, with regards to REE, the EC
and Member States should promote recycling-friendly design to help identify and recover REE
components in waste more easily181.
Design for recycling is expected also to deal with the problem of down-cycling, which is the
phenomenon, that recycled materials are of lower quality than the respective primary materials. Other
than for paper or plastics, where no ‘down-cycling’ occurs: in theory, effective recycling could lead to
an infinite metal cycle, that is, the quality of recycled metals is identical to primary metals. In practice,
however, (technology and special) metals are often lost from the value-chain because they cease to
be accessible for recovery, being locked up in alloys or complex materials. The separation requires
large amounts of energy and/or sophisticated technologies, which may outweigh any gain from
recycling. Designers and engineers, therefore, are challenged to balance the benefits of using high-
179 McDonough, W., Braungart, M., (2002) Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, 1st ed., 202 p., New York: North Point Press., http://www.cradletocradle.com/ 180 Hagelüken & Meskers (2009), “Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals”, in: Graedel, T.E., van der Voet, E. [Eds.] Linkages of Sustainability, 163–97, The MIT Press Scholarship Online, http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/ 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013581.001.0001/upso-9780262013581-chapter-10, accessed 17.05.17. 181 Kooroshy, J., Tiess, G., Tukker, A., Walton, A. [Eds.] (2015), “Strenghtening the European Rare Earths Supply-Chain. Challenges and Policy Options”, ERECON Network, European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/10882/ attachments/1/ translations/en/renditions/pdf, accessed 17.05.17
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tech materials against the cost of keeping their compounds in the value-chain. Such trade-offs are not
easy to assess and require sophisticated life-cycle models.
Even though, in theory, eco-design practices have a large potential, their uptake by the market is slow
in general and is only implemented via incremental improvements (not through new radical designs of
the entire product). A study on eco-design practices in Europe found that “…eco-design is mainly
practised by several dozen 'champion' firms, which mainly concentrate on incremental improvements
rather than re-design or system innovations. The front runners are mainly advanced in terms of method
development and, to some extent, dissemination and education. Concerning method development,
dissemination of knowledge should take place from front runners to other EU countries.” 182
In terms of corporate policies or initiatives, there seems to be an uptake of the concept by some of the
major companies, e.g. automobile producers, which are implementing the concept also incrementally
to some of their parts. A business example is given by Toyota: Toyota designs vehicles with dismantling
in mind, for example by creating V-shaped grooves at the points in the bodywork where the instrument
panel is attached, making it easier to remove. Toyota also recovers PGMs from dismantled car
catalysts.183
A recent study undertook a comprehensive review of literature in the area of sustainability in the
mineral industry, with a key focus on the design of sustainable mineral operations184. It was found that,
while there is a range of tools and methodologies that contribute to Design for Sustainability, there is
no consistent, integrated approach to support the mineral industry in incorporating a greater level of
sustainability into the design process. The EU has also funded several projects that aim to make mining
techniques more targeted, generating less waste above ground, and in general generating less impacts,
e.g. the projects I2Mine (www.i2mine.eu) and BIOMore (www.biomore.info).
In November 2016 the EC released the COM (2016) on the Eco-design working plan 2016-2019185. It is
acknowledged that product design is a key aspect, as it can have significant impacts across the product
life-cycle, e.g. in making a product more durable, easier to repair, re-use or recycle. In other words, it
recognises that the possibility to repair, remanufacture or recycle a product and its components and
materials depends in large part on the initial design of the product.
It is also recognised that the Ecodesign Directive already covers all significant environmental impacts
along the life-cycle of products, but the focus so far has been on energy efficiency improvements and
that in the future it should make a more significant contribution to the circular economy, e.g. by more
systematically tackling material efficiency issues such as durability and recyclability.
Such document establishes the EC´s working priorities under the Eco-design and labelling framework
for 2016-2019 and includes the presence of CRMs. According to such new working plan, the EC will
182 Tukker, A., Peter E., Charter, M., Haag, E., Vercalsteren, A., Wiedmann, T. (2001) “Eco-Design: The State of Implementation in Europe – Conclusions of a State of the Art Study for IPTS”, Journal of Sustainable Product Design, 1(3), 147–61. doi: 10.1023/A:1020564820675. 183 Toyota, “Recycle – Maximising our vehicles recyclability”, https://www.toyota-europe.com/world-of-toyota/feel/environment/better-earth/recycle 184 McLellan et al. (2009) “Incorporating Sustainable Development in the Design of Mineral Processing Operations – Review and Analysis of Current Approaches”, J. Cleaner Production, 17(16), 1414–1425, doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2009.06.003. 185 European Commission (2016). Ecodesign Working Plan 2016-2019 - COM(2016) 773. [online] Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/com_2016_773.en_.pdf [Accessed 18 Oct. 2017].
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explore “the possibility of establishing more product-specific and/or horizontal requirements in areas
such as durability (e.g. minimum life-time of products or critical components), reparability (e.g.
availability of spare parts and repair manuals, design for repair), upgradeability, design for disassembly
(e.g. easy removal of certain components), information (e.g. marking of plastic parts) and ease of reuse
and recycling (e.g. avoiding incompatible plastics), greenhouse gas and other emissions, and to further
establish the scientific basis for developing corresponding criteria that meet the requirements of the
Ecodesign Directive”186. The Preparatory Study to establish the Ecodesign Working Plan 2015-2017
implementing Directive 2009/125/EC187, defined minimum amounts of critical metals that appear
among the potential conditional eco-design requirements, and the issue also appears when discussing
rechargeable batteries with significant amounts of CRMs such as REE and cobalt.
12.1.2 MATERIAL REDUCTION / SUBSTITUTION
Product design optimisation may enable the reduction of weight and components through the use of
less or lighter materials. This can result in a reduction of the amount of waste and emissions, but
aspects such as product durability, longevity and functionality need to be considered.
Substitution can take the form of188:
• Substance for substance: Successful replacement cases have already been achieved in the past
(e.g., Pd by Ni in certain Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors).
• Process for process
• Service for product
• New technology for substance
A material can sometimes be substituted by another one that may have a lower environmental impact
over the entire life-cycle or may have a lower supply risk.
• Alternative material: replace one material for another without loss of functionality.
• Alternative system: replace one/several components within the same product.
• Alternative products: replace existing technology with different products and/or services.
Nevertheless, for some CRMs (antimony, cobalt, gallium, germanium, indium, REE, silicon) it is
important to realise that the replacement metal is often from the same group of elements (Table 6).
Thus, a relief in demand in one area might result in a new (supply) challenge in another. In other words,
186 European Commission (2016) “Ecodesign Working Plan 2016-2019”, Communication from the Commission, COM(2016) 773 final, 30.11.2016, http://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ ener/files/documents/com_2016_773.en_.pdf, accessed 27.03.17. 187 BIO by Deloitte, Oeko-Institut and ERA Technology (2014) Preparatory Study to establish the Ecodesign Working Plan 20152017 implementing Directive 2009/125/EC” http://www.ecodesign-wp3.eu/sites/default/files/Ecodesign%20WP3_Task%202_Supplementary%20report%20on%20resources_17092014_0.pdf, accessed 27.03.17. 188 CRM InnoNet (2015), “Deliverable Report D8.1 Conclusions report March 2015”, http://www.asd-europe.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Client_documents/ASD_Contents/7_CROSS-FUNCTIONS/7.3_RT_and_RD/D8.1_Conclusions_Report.pdf
Beryllium Organic composites, high grade of aluminium, pyrolytic graphite, silicon carbide, steel, titanium (beryllium metal or composites). Copper alloys containing nickel and silicon, tin, titanium and others copper alloys (beryllium-copper alloys)
Beryllium metal, composites and alloys
Borates Sodium percarbonate (detergents). Phosphates (enamels). Cellulose, foams and mineral woods (Insulation). Sodium and potassium salts of fatty acids (soaps)
Cleaning agents, pigments
Chromium No substitute
Cobalt Barium or strontium ferrites, neodymium-iron-boron, or nickel-iron alloys in magnets; cerium, iron, lead, manganese, or vanadium in paints; iron-copper in diamond tools; copper-iron-manganese for curing unsaturated polyester resins; iron, nickel, cermet, or ceramics (cutting and wear-resistant materials). Iron-phosphorous, manganese (lithium-ion batteries). Nickel-based alloys or ceramics in jet engines; nickel in petroleum catalysts; and rhodium (hydroformylation catalysts).
Cutting materials, batteries, catalysts
Coking coal Electric arc furnace for steel production Iron and steel
Flourspar Aluminium smelting dross, borax, calcium chloride, iron oxides, manganese ore, silica sand, and titanium dioxide
Germanium Silicon, metallic compounds (electronic applications, LEDs). Zinc selenide and germanium glass (infrared application systems). Antimony and titanium (polymerization catalysts)
Electronics, infrared applications, catalysts
Indium Antimony tin oxide, zinc oxide Nano powder (LCD). Carbon nanotube, PEDOT, silver nanowires, Graphene, gallium arsenide (flexible displays, solar cells and touch screens).
LCDs, displays, solar cells, Nuclear reactor control rod alloys
Magnesite Alumina, chromite, silica (refractory applications). Substitute available for cement industry.
Refractory applications, cement
Magnesium Aluminium and zinc (casting and wrought). Calcium carbide (desulfurization of iron and steel)
Iron and steel
Natural Graphite Synthetic, scrap, calcined petroleum coke (iron and steel, battery applications). Ground coke with olivine (foundry-facing applications). Molybdenum, tantalum and tungsten (high temperature applications)
Iron and steel, batteries, foundry-facing applications, high temperature applications
189 Hagelüken & Meskers (2009) “Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals”, in: Graedel, T.E., van der Voet, E. [Eds.] Linkages of Sustainability, 163–97, The MIT Press Scholarship Online, http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/ 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013581.001.0001/upso-9780262013581-chapter-10, accessed 17.05.17.
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CRM Substitute(s) Field of application(s)
Niobium Molybdenum, vanadium (low alloys steels). Tantalum and titanium (Stainless and high strength steels). Ceramics, molybdenum, tantalum, tungsten (high temperature applications)
Cutting materials and wear resistant applications, electrodes
12.1.3 RECOVERY
Mining of landfills and mining residues
Landfills and mine waste disposal sites, including tailings ponds, have a certain potential for CRM
recovery. Target minerals have changed over time and some metals of interest today may not even
have been known at the time, when the original deposits were mined. In addition, today’s markets and
processing technologies make recovery of much lower concentrations economically and technically
feasible than in earlier times. The main issue with such legacy sites is that the distribution of any metal
value and its form of occurrence in most cases is unknown. Hence, if recovery is planned, such sites
require a detailed site investigation, akin to near-surface exploration, in order to determine possible
amounts and their distribution in the body of disposed material. Excavation of such materials for the
purpose of recovery of valuable materials has found increasing interest over the past decade or so,
which is also reflected in applied research projects, such as the Horizon 2020 project FAME
(http://www.fame-project.info/).
It should be noted that such ‘re-mining’ projects may attract similar public resistance as mining
projects and require careful impact assessment and stakeholder involvement from the beginning. In
some instances, the regions with potentially valuable mining and milling residues have not seen any
such activties for decades or even centuries.
Landfill mining would be seen as a transitory activity, as improved milling technologies and better
recycling systems are expected to remove such residues at source. The general move in waste
management away from disposal towards comprehensive recycling and re-use will reduce the amount
of waste going to final disposal. The concept has been promoted for decades. Although the amount of
municipal waste being incinerated becomes increasingly less due to more effective and efficient
collection and recycling processes190, the resulting bottom and fly ashes have the potential for recovery
190 Rossy et al. (2010) “Sustainable Materials Management for Europe, from efficiency to effectiveness”, Study for the Flemish Government, Department of Environment, Nature and Energy (LNE) and the Public Waste Agency of Flanders, 70 p., http://www.parlement-eu2010.be/pdf/3-4okt-materials-management.pdf, accessed 16.06.17.
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of metal value including some CRMs191. Similarly, the bottom and fly ashes from coal burning have the
potential for metal value recovery, although the glassy nature of the ashes makes the process harder.
While improved industrial and domestic waste management will reduce the amounts of such wastes
being landfilles, there are large legacy quantities World-wide that can be targeted.. Similarly, ‘total
extraction’ is being advocated as an approach to milling metal ores. The concept behind this is that it
is energetically cheaper to extract all metals, regardless actual market value, than to re-mine the
material later. Such material would need to be stock-piled until there is a market for them.
A problem that has to be dealt with in all cases of re-mining is the possible presence of hazardous or
radioactive components, for which no use is foreseen.
Co-recovery (or by-product recovery)
Complexity (understood as the variety of substances in a single product) today is very frequent among
technology products, such as automobiles or electronics. Many substances are often used as
compounds, closely interlinked, comprising both valuable and hazardous substances, which makes the
recovery of materials concentrated at the ppm level (e.g. metals in printed circuit boards or LCD
screens) very challenging (both technologically and economically). For instance, recovering precious
metals from waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) is technically far more challenging than recovering
Cu from cables or Al from wheel rims. Coupled recovery (or co-recovery) is a possibility to increase the
recovery of some CRMs from WEEE. Similar to coupled production in primary production, a limited
number of valuable ‘paying’ metals provide the economic incentive for recycling, enabling the
additional recovery of ‘by-product’ metals with sub economic value or concentration. For printed
circuit boards (PCBs), the drivers for recycling are Au, Ag, Pd, and Cu; however, various special metals
can be co-recovered with appropriate technologies192.
However, many recovery plants focus, solely on carrier metals (e.g. copper and precious metals). It
was estimated that about 760 tonnes of germanium were present in 2012 in zinc ores mined in Europe,
but only a small proportion was effectively recovered193. This means that a large amount of special
metals is lost that could technically be recovered. If the economic incentive was there for new and
difficult materials, the appropriate technological processes could be developed.
Easier dismantling/Recovery
The automobile industry is promoting easier dismantling via marking of certain parts with an ‘Easy to
Dismantle’ symbol, as Toyota does, to show clearly where they can be most easily taken apart and
sorted into different material streams for recycling. Best practice dismantling information is available
via the International Dismantling Information System (www.idis2.com). It may be noted that the ‘snap-
191Funari (2016), “The Critical Raw Materials Potential of Anthropogenic Deposits: Insights from solid residues of Municipal Waste Incineration”, http://www.socminpet.it/Plinius2016/funari.pdf; Funari et al. (2015) “Solid residues from Italian municipal solid waste incinerators: A source for "critical" raw materials”, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25512234 192 Hagelüken & Meskers (2009) “Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals”, in: Graedel, T.E., van der Voet, E. [Eds.] Linkages of Sustainability, 163–97, The MIT Press Scholarship Online, http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/ 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013581.001.0001/upso-9780262013581-chapter-10, accessed 17.05.17. 193 Deloitte et al., “Study on the Review of the List of Critical Raw Materials. Critical Raw Materials Factsheets.”
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together’ techonology that facilitates assembly and reduces the number of fasteners is a design
concept that works against easy dismantling. Once assembled, the product often cannot be
disassembled without destroying it, thus making repair and recovery of parts impossible.
In case of automobile recycling, particularly with reference to recovering minor metals, such as REEs
from the motors, the only difference between electrical vehicles (EVs) and hybrid-electrical vehicles
(HEVs) is the size of the battery and the number of motors. The Nissan model Leaf, for example, is an
electric vehicle with one motor, but in Toyota model Prius hybrid has two motors, one electrical and
one internal combustion.
Not only is it technologically difficult to remove the motor-magnets for recovery in an economic way,
but it is currently not clear, whether this would result in enough feedstock to make this commercially
viable, i.e. how many vehicles would be needed to establish an economically viable process.
The automotive industries seem to be actively working on researching and developing dismantling and
recycling techniques and incorporating them into vehicle designs. Toyota, a leading multinational
automotive manufacturing company with many facilities in Europe, established the Automobile
Recycle Technical Center within Toyota Metal Co., Ltd. in 2001 in order to look at "dismantling
technologies for the magnets used in devices such as hybrid vehicle drive motors which use
neodymium and dysprosium". Toyota is taking a two-fold approach that many car companies are
following: (1) use less CRMs when possible and (2) procure CRMs from recycled motors or urban
mines194. This may require also a paradigm shift away from designing for ease of assembly towards
ease of disassembly for repair/recycling, as noted above. Today many parts are joined using snap-fits,
rather than using fasteners, such as screws. However, return to fasteners may increase weight and
materials use.
12.1.4 MANUFACTURING AND RE-MANUFACTURING
During the manufacturing phase, losses occur in the form of production scraps, which are not always
recycled. Production scrap can, for example, be runners, grates from casting, spent sputtering targets,
scrapings from sputtering chambers, saw dust, and turning/milling swarf, and rests of stamping sheets.
The large impact on primary metal demand can be mitigated by recycling, either within the company
itself or by outsourcing to a specialised facility. For special metals, recycling of production scrap is often
not common practice, as it requires special technologies195.
In manufacturing, the challenges to recycle production (pre-consumer or fabrication) scrap usually
increase when moving further downstream in the production process. Early manufacturing steps offer
a significant recycling potential for many minor metals. In the case of In, Ge, and Ru, this has been
194 Bailey et al. (2017), “Sustainability of Permanent Rare Earth Magnet Motors in (H)EV Industry”, J. Sustain. Metall., DOI 10.1007/s40831-017-0118-4. 195 Hagelüken & Meskers (2009) “Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals”, in: Graedel, T.E., van der Voet, E. [Eds.] Linkages of Sustainability, 163–97, The MIT Press Scholarship Online, http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/ 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013581.001.0001/upso-9780262013581-chapter-10, accessed 17.05.17.
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applied increasingly over the last years. Metal losses occurring during the product use phase are mostly
dissipative in nature, leading to a permanent loss for recycling, e.g. rusting iron and steel parts196.
Re-manufacturing
Re-manufacturing can be understood as “returning a product to at least its original performance with
a warranty that is equivalent or better than that of the newly manufactured product”. The main
advantage of remanufacturing is that the embodied energy and resources of the working parts are
saved. Only the broken parts are replaced, which requires minimal energy in order to restore the
product to its original quality. Remanufacturing can be a very beneficial strategy for the producers,
while at the same time it optimises for a circular economy. By keeping components and their embodied
material (including ‘critical’ materials) in use for longer, significant energy use and emissions to air and
water (e.g. CO2 and SO2) can be avoided, thereby contributing to resource efficiency strategies (circular
economy package) and to a low carbon economy. There are however some major challenges, regarding
the reverse logistics scheme, quality control and potential cannibalising of existing markets 197. The
effect on the market and pricing are complex, a reduced number of products sold may lead to higher
unit costs and prices, for instance.
According to the findings of a recent study by the European Remanufacturing Network198, Germany is
the country with the highest remanufacturing turnover and remanufacturing forms a valid substitution
strategy, i.e. by implementing remanufacturing longer life is achieved by the cycles of use-
remanufacturing-use-remanufacturing etc. This reduces the rate of material consumption and loss of
the advanced materials. The study focused on three sectors: automotives, wind turbines and
electronics (e.g. magnetic resonance imaging equipment that contains niobium alloys and chemicals,
for example niobium-titanium, niobium-tin and niobium nitrite for the manufacture of
superconducting magnet based MRI systems). In the case of wind turbines, those that were
manufactured and installed decades ago are currently being retired, as they reach the end their first
design life. There is a third-party market developing to refurbish/remanufacture these wind turbines,
which are then sold on at approximately half of the original equipment price. The warranty of new
wind turbines is on average 2-5 years, despite their 20 year designed life span. Even though the average
lifespan of a reconditioned unit is typically lower at 10-15 years, it is still given the same 2-5-year
warranty. The third-party remanufacturer therefore has some legitimacy in claiming that these
remanufactured units are ‘like new’199.
All CRMs are ‘accessible’ via remanufacturing, as long as the component or sub-assembly is not
scrapped. Critical to this is knowledge of embedded CRMs. If the company carrying out the
remanufacturing does not know, where the CRMs are, they cannot make an informed decision on
196 Hagelüken & Meskers (2009) “Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals”, in: Graedel, T.E., van der Voet, E. [Eds.] Linkages of Sustainability, 163–97, The MIT Press Scholarship Online, http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/ 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013581.001.0001/upso-9780262013581-chapter-10, accessed 17.05.17. 197 de Winter (2014) “Circular business models: An opportunity to generate new value, recover value and mitigate risk associated with pressure on raw material availability and price volatility”, Utrecht University Master Thesis, 46 p., https://dspace.library. uu.nl/handle/1874/294898, accessed 19.05.17. 198 Parker et al. (2015) “Remanufacturing Market Study”, Report by the European Remanufacturing Network (ERN), 145 p., https://www.remanufacturing.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/study.pdf, accessed 16.06.17 199 Parker et al. (2015) “Remanufacturing Market Study”, Report by the European Remanufacturing Network (ERN), 145 p., https://www.remanufacturing.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/study.pdf, accessed 16.06.17
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treating the product or component. Despite the potential in the sector, the previously-mentioned
study found that, in Europe, remanufacturing is an undervalued part of the industrial landscape and
cross-sectoral activities to facilitate knowledge transfer and promote the industry do not exist in
remanufacturing - unlike in the recycling industry200.
12.1.5 RE-USE / RECYCLING
Re-use of products containing CRMs is most efficiently conducted on pre-consumer (also called
fabrication) scrap, i.e. on scrap created by manufacturing processes at the fabrication site. One
possibility is to re-use such scrap, e.g. metal scrap, by re-melting it. An example of such a corporate
policy is given by Rolls Royce´s ‘Revert’ Programme. According to the company´s information, rhenium,
hafnium, tantalum, and titanium are just some of the metals needed to make the alloys that go into
today's advanced aero engines. Over 20,000 tonnes of these alloys are used each year by Rolls-
Royce201. As stated by the company, every one of Rolls Royce´s manufacturing facilities, in over 100
locations around the world, is part of a recycling programme they call 'Revert', where waste metals
from manufacturing are recovered, recycled and re-used, so that such metals can be melted again and
turned into new aerospace alloys.
Another possibility is to avoid sending the fabrication scrap for re-melting and instead use it at the
same factory or elsewhere, thereby saving energy and other inputs necessary for the re-melting.
Recycling
Many materials used by the EU industry come from secondary or recycled sources. Producing goods
using recycled materials is often much less energy intensive than manufacturing goods from virgin
materials. Recycling can thus reduce production costs and carbon emissions. Even though it cannot
meet the EU industry's demand for raw materials, recycling has a great potential to improve Europe's
resource efficiency. Using lower quantities of materials in product design can also play a part in
improving access to raw materials in Europe. In its Raw Materials Initiative, the Commission proposes
measures to improve how recycling markets work through202:
• development of best practices in collection and treatment of waste;
• improving the availability of statistics on waste and materials flows - see the Knowledge base;
• reviewing EU waste and Eco-design legislation;
• supporting research and innovation;
• promoting economic incentives for re-use and recycling.
Recycling contributes to supply security by (a) mitigating gaps between demand from market and
primary supply, (b) partially decoupling minor metal production from carrier metal production, and (c)
200 Parker et al. (2015) “Remanufacturing Market Study”, Report by the European Remanufacturing Network (ERN), 145 p., https://www.remanufacturing.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/study.pdf, accessed 16.06.17 201 Rolls Royce plc. (no year) “Reducing demand for finite resources”, Web-page on RR’s ‘Revert’ programme, https://www.rolls-royce.com/sustainability/performance/case-studies/revert.aspx, accessed 27.03.17. 202 European Commission (2017), “Resource efficiency and recycling “, https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/policy-strategy/resource-efficiency_en , accessed 16.07.17
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lowering the dependency on a few supplying regions or companies as the regional distribution of scrap
and recyclers will be different203. Nevertheless, one has to also consider the energy expenditure (CO2
footprint) of recycling, particularly of difficult mixtures; one needs to balance the systemic
environmental impact of primary materials vs. recycled materials use. This is one of the aims of the
Circular Economy Package to achieve a low-carbon and green economy.
Standards – level playing field: defining technical and environmental treatment standards is important
for the recycling industry, because standards help create a level playing field and promote innovation.
Control and enforcement is crucial, especially with respect to recycling plants outside Europe. Figure
14 illustrated the REE secondary supply chain for the company SOLVAY.
Figure 10: REE secondary supply chain for Solvay204
Collection efficiency: Legislation, public campaigns (e.g., by authorities, NGOs, manufacturers), and
an appropriate infrastructure for handing in old products are important pre-requisites. Europe (in
particular, the Scandinavian, Benelux, and the German-speaking countries) has progressed in (re-)
developing a general ‘recycling mentality’. Although many people are used to trading or returning old
goods to collection points for re-use, some items (e.g., mobile phones or ‘high price’ electronics such
as computers) require incentives to bring them out of ‘hibernation’ (hibernation means goods that
reached their end of life and are stored/stockpiled at households or other physical places 205 . A
consumer survey indicated only 3% of people return old mobile phones for re-use or recycling, whereas
44% store them at home (Nokia 2008) 206.
203 Hagelüken & Meskers (2009) “Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals”, in: Graedel, T.E., van der Voet, E. [Eds.] Linkages of Sustainability, 163–97, The MIT Press Scholarship Online, http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/ 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013581.001.0001/upso-9780262013581-chapter-10, accessed 17.05.17. 204 Golev et al. (2014) “Rare earths supply chains: Current status, constraints and opportunities”, Resources Policy, 41, 52-59, https://www.uvm.edu/giee/pubpdfs/Golev_2014_Resources%20Policy.pdf, accessed 17.05.17. 205 European Commission (2010) “Report lists 14 critical mineral raw materials”, MEMO/10/263, Brussels, 17 June 2010, http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-10-263_en.htm?locale=en, accessed 16.06.17. 206 Hagelüken & Meskers (2009) “Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals”, in: Graedel, T.E., van der Voet, E. [Eds.] Linkages of Sustainability, 163–97, The MIT Press Scholarship Online, http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/ 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013581.001.0001/upso-9780262013581-chapter-10, accessed 17.05.17.
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Pre-consumer scrap, which originates from the manufacturing process and is usually of high purity and
high value, is the easiest and economically most beneficial to recycle. Conversely, recycling of metal in
end-of-life discarded consumer products often requires more effort and energy, such as the feed for a
pre-treatment step because each specific metal is a small part of a complex product.
Post-consumer scrap collection: an important aspect about the WEEE Directive is the Extended
Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy as Member States are asked to comply with this requirement. EPR
shifts the responsibility for waste management from government to private industry, obliging
producers, importers and/or sellers to internalise waste management costs in their product prices and
to ensure the safe handling of their products (including promoting of collection of old used EEE from
consumers).
High prices for metals and resources stimulate recycling efforts. The scrap value is determined by the
intrinsic monetary value of the contained substances and the total costs needed to realise this value.
Thus, value is determined by metal market prices, as well as the variety and yields of recoverable
substances. Cost elements comprise logistics, treatment in the subsequent steps of the recycling chain,
and environmentally sound disposal of unrecoverable fractions/substances207.
12.1.6 NOVEL BUSINESS MODELS
As a result of the End-of-Life-Vehicle (ELV) Directive (2000/53/EC), the International Dismantling
Information System (IDIS) was developed by the automotive industry to meet its legal obligations. It
has been developed an information system with vehicle manufacturer-compiled information for
treatment operators to promote the environmentally safe and economical treatment of End-of-Life-
Vehicles. The system development and improvement is supervised and controlled by the IDIS2
Consortium, formed by automotive manufacturers from Europe, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, and the USA.
As a result of that, of the Batteries Directives 2006/66/EC, and of other legal incentives, new business
models and companies are being established. One example is the French company SNAM208, which is
one of the few companies worldwide to master metal recycling techniques for Cd, Li, Ni, etc. from
batteries. The company focuses in particular on recycling new-generation car batteries: after
processing end-of-life batteries obtained from numerous international sources, SNAM concentrates
metals, including cobalt, platinum and neodymium, which then are fed back to the European industry.
Another example is the Belgian company Umicore (http://www.umicore.com/). In its integrated
smelter-refinery located in Hoboken (Antwerp), Umicore efficiently recovers 14 different precious and
special metals together with the major metals Cu, Pb, and Ni. For precious metals from PCBs or
catalysts, despite their low concentration, yields of over 95% are realized, and Sn, Pb, Cu, Bi, Sb, In, Se
207 Hagelüken & Meskers (2009) “Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals”, in: Graedel, T.E., van der Voet, E. [Eds.] Linkages of Sustainability, 163–97, The MIT Press Scholarship Online, http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/ 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013581.001.0001/upso-9780262013581-chapter-10, accessed 17.05.17. 208 SNAM (no year) Company Web-site, http://www.snam.com/index2012-uk.php, accessed 19.05.17.
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and others are simultaneously reclaimed209. In other dedicated processes (in its batteries recycling
plant), Umicore recovers Co, Ni, and Cu from batteries (NiMH, Li ion, Li polymer type), Ge from waver
production scrap, and In from indium-tin-(ITO-) sputtering targets210. Another example is given by
Toyota´s vehicle recycling policy211 following the ELV Directive requirements where the recycling of
CRMs is highlighted (e.g. PGMs).
Since the CRMs became a major focus of attention in the European scene, especially after the launch
of the first CRMs reports by the EC (2010/2014), new multi-stakeholder platforms were created and
existing ones re-addressed their agendas towards the issue. These platforms are characterised by close
interrelations and continuous dialogues between the industry and its associations, governments,
academia and research institutes, among other key stakeholders. The EC´s R&I programme (previously
the FPs, currently the H2020) are major drivers of multiple research projects and raw material
commitments, platforms and alliances focusing specifically on the CRM supply security issue.
209 Hagelüken (2006) “Improving Metal Returns and Eco-Efficiency in Electronics Recycling - a Holistic Approach for Interface Optimisation between Pre-Processing and Integrated Metals Smelting and Refining”, Proc. 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment, 218–223, doi:10.1109/ISEE.2006.1650064, accessed 17.05.17. 210 Hagelüken (2006) “Improving Metal Returns and Eco-Efficiency in Electronics Recycling - a Holistic Approach for Interface Optimisation between Pre-Processing and Integrated Metals Smelting and Refining”, Proc. 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment, 218–223, doi:10.1109/ISEE.2006.1650064, accessed 17.05.17. 211 Toyota (no year) “Recycle – Maximising our vehicles recyclability”, corporate Web-site, https://www.toyota-europe.com/world-of-toyota/feel/environment/better-earth/recycle, accessed 19.05.17.
