What are the critical metals?

Technological innovations developed to support the energy transition make use of critical or strategic metals: these refined minerals and metals are used for: electric vehicles: cobalt, lanthanum, lithium, fuel cells: platinum, palladium, rhodium, photovoltaic solar technologies: cadmium, indium, gallium.

What are critical minerals?

Critical minerals are metals and non-metals that are considered vital for the economic well-being of the world’s major and emerging economies, yet whose supply may be at risk due to geological scarcity, geopolitical issues, trade policy or other factors.

What are critical materials?

What is a “Critical Material?” • Any substance used in technology that is subject to supply risks, and for which there are no easy substitutes. • Or, in plain English – stuff you really need but can’t always get.

What are critical minerals list?

They include the rare earth elements and other metals such as lithium, indium, tellurium, gallium, and platinum group elements.

Is gold a critical metal?

Both gold and silver (especially gold) are hitch-hikers, although still mined for themselves. An increasing fraction of the supply is from copper or zinc ores. Neither metal is regarded as critical. The PGMs (gold and silver) are very scarce in geological terms.

Is Aluminium a critical metal?

Critical metals are those metals that are either strategic or highly demanded, have few or no known substitutes, and have supply chains vulnerable to disruption or bottleneck [1]….Introduction.

Is Platinum is a critical mineral?

Of the 56 elements or elemental groups evaluated, the three most commonly identified as critical in these studies are the rare-earth elements (REE), the platinum-group metals (PGM), and indium. Most of the studies also identify tungsten, germanium, cobalt, niobium, tantalum, gallium, and antimony as critical.

Is an example for critical mineral?

The draft list consisted of 35 minerals or mineral material groups deemed critical under the definition provided in the Executive Order: Aluminum (bauxite), antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium, bismuth, cesium, chromium, cobalt, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, graphite (natural), hafnium, helium, indium, lithium.

What are heavy rare earths?

The heavy rare earth elements make up the balance and are significantly less abundant. These comprise europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium and yttrium. Rare earths each have their own individual demand drivers, challenges and technology innovations.

What is critical raw material?

Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) are those raw materials that are economically and strategically important for the European economy but have a high-risk associated with their supply. In this scenario, ‘mitigating actions’ need to be developed to reduce criticalities linked to the use of those raw materials.

Is there an endless supply of minerals?

Absolutely. In a sense we’re always facing mineral shortages. A lot of these are minerals that never had industrial applications until 20 or 30 years ago, and they’re produced in such small quantities that they’re much more susceptible to supply risks.

What is the most expensive rare earth metal?

Rhodium. The title of the most expensive precious metal in the world goes to Rhodium. This precious metal is extremely rare and can be best described as a silver-white, hard, corrosion-resistant inert transition metal.

Is there a demand for high criticality metals?

Interestingly, results indicate that, to date, no long-term demand outlook is available for some high criticality metals.

What is the full list of critical minerals?

The full list of critical minerals includes the following—click a mineral’s name to find relevant statistics and publications:

Why are critical metals important to our economy?

Critical metals are technologically vital to the functionality of various emerging technologies, yet they have a potentially unstable supply. This condition calls for strategic planning based on the expected long-term demand and supply of these metals and the implications attached.

How many data points indicate critical metal demand to 2050?

546 data points indicating global critical metal demand to 2030 and 2050 are provided. In the examined studies, social and environmental implications induced by demand growth are rarely quantified. Few models incorporate component reuse and remanufacturing.