Edc critical materials briefing june2012 low res

key issues
resource efficiency
opportunities
UK and EU actions
cycled project
issues for Wales?

Major manufacturing companies consider
minerals and metals scarcity as an important
issue for their business, but do not see
sufficient awareness of this topic among all
their stakeholders

The Ticking Time Bomb, PwC, November 2011

Ecodesign Centre Critial Material brieﬁng for Welsh Government, June 2012

over 80% of CEOs of manufacturing
companies said raw material shortgaes was a
risk to their business in 2012

EEF membership survey, December 2011


A recent Eurobarometer survey of European
entrepreneurs found that 75% have seen
material costs in their business increase...
87% said they expect prices to continue rising

CBI ‘Made to Last’, December 2011


EU critical metals


UK resource secturity action plan


relation between world production and demand for future technologies


what causes supply risk?

geostrategic risks geological availability
access to markets life time of resources,
concentration of exploration activities
production, social and
environmental limits

market power technical availability

high concentration of supply/demand capacity
production in a few in mining, processing,
countries or companies metallurgy and transport,
production costs

speed of R&D dependence on imports

recycling, substitution, importance of the mineral
material efficiency, domestic value chain
mineral production


key issues


Key issue 1
Many critical metals are traded in relatively small
quantities, compared to steel, copper etc. and the
supply is concentrated in a few countries.

These countries have the ability to control supply for
speculative, political or geo-strategic reasons

Mining and extraction is a slow and inelastic system. It
can take 15 years or more to get a mine into production


source: EU


source: USGS


Key issue 2
Material criticality affects a number of materials
simultaneously thus causing complexity for the supply
and demand side.

For example, supply shortages for several critical
metals may occur at the same time.


Key issue 3
Currently recycling rates are minimal due to diffusion,
product design and business models


recycling rate for 60 metals


Key issue 5
The social and environmental limits. Many people
demand iPhones and iPads but would not like a mine in
their neighbourhood.

& conﬂict metals

& declining grades of ore requiring more energy to
extract


according to UNEP

Since 1990, at least 18 violent conflicts have been
fuelled by the exploitation of natural resources.

40% of all intrastate conflicts since 1960 have a link
to natural resources

Intrastate conflicts linked to natural resources are
twice as likely to relapse to conflict in five years.


Key issue 6
On the demand side (manufacturing, retail) there is
complexity regarding substitution or maintaining
performance while using resources efficiently.


45% of all electrical energy goes to motors
–7000 TWh/year
–6040 Mt CO2/year

•>99% of all electrical energy from electrical generators

•40M electric motors produced in EU / US every year

•12M Electric Vehicles per year by 2030 requiring large,
volume produced electric motors (Credit Suisse)


opportunities


value of gold in EEE we buy each year in UK is
estaimated at £350 million

by 2020 the UK will dispose of 12 million tonnes of
WEEE = £1 billion of palladium and £380 indium

1/4 of WEEE sent to recycling could be repaired and
resold = £200 million p/a


Recycling has an energy efficiency 2x to 10x times better than primary extraction

Metals thrown away, and not recycled, represent each year in Europe more than 7
billions euros lost, in metals value terms.

recovery rates depend on
material composition accessibility / quality of mechanical quality of metallurgy
type of connections removal of key parts seperation
(catalysts, batteries, PCB)


dissipation

residue

use

residue

product new scrap
end of life
manufacture

recycling residue
industrial
materials

residue raw materials
historic waste
ores (tailing, landﬁll)
concentrates


dissipation

residue

ecodesign
use
design for disassembly
dematerialisation recyclability

residue

product new scrap close loop end of life
manufacture

recycling residue
industrial
substitution
substitution
materials

residue raw materials
historic waste
ores (tailing, landﬁll)
concentrates


actions


• Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) on feasibility of new approaches
to gain value from domestic and commercial waste streams (i.e. through
re-use and recovery) (Lead: Defra with the TSB)
• improving data capture of WEEE (Lead: BIS)
• critical resources dashboard (ES KTN, BGS etc.)
• development of a materials ﬂow analysis for WEEE ‘hot spots’ (Lead: WRAP)
• recycling demonstration trials (Lead: WRAP)
• industry-led consortium to further develop links between government,
business and other organisations (Lead: Green Alliance)

New designs for a circular economy (tbc) TSB with RSA & Ellen MacArthur
Foundation


Edc critical materials briefing june2012 low res

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