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From Geology to Mineral Resources Raw materials supply: a bottleneck in the transition to a low carbon energy system
EuroScience Open Forum, ESOF, Copenhagen, 21-26, June
Nikolaos Arvanitidis Dr. Economic Geologist
Head of Bedrock and Geochemistry Division-SGU Chair of EuroGeoSurveys Mineral resources Expert Group
Re-shaping the mineral industry
The growth of industrial economies, like for instance the Chinese and the Indian, led to a tremendous upward spiral of mineral Consumption. The demand is became so great that even low mineral concentrations and mining related waste can reasonably be considered ore deposits. This means the global mineral industry needs to be reshaped.
Doubling of used extraction from 2000 to 2030
Waste potential grows
Nano-particle products from new mineral resources from Europe
Application of web GIS technologies for the sustainable supply of Europe with Energy and Mineral Resources
Development of a sustainable exploitation scheme for Europe's REE ore deposits
Minerals Intelligence Network for Europe
EU Raw Materials Statistics
European Geological Data Infrastructure
Mineral resources databases networking
The EU Raw Materials Knowledge Base (EURMKB) will provide EU level data and information on raw materials from different sources in a harmonized and standardized way.
PROMINE Portal
http://ptarc.gtk.fi/promine/default.aspx
(total number of 13,686 records)
Critical raw materials for the EU Minerals Raw Materials in Europe (based on total number of 13,686 records)
Anthropogenic concentrations (mine wastes)
Number Deposit types Commodity Association
1 Alkaline & Peralkaline intrusions Nb, REE, P, (Ta, Zr, Sc, F, U, Fe)
2 Epithermal Au, Ag, Sb, Hg, Te, Cu, In
3 Igneous Felsic Sn, W, Ta, Nb, (Mo, Li, Be, B, In, F)
4 Igneous Intermediate Cu, Mo, Au, (Re)
5 Igneous Replacement Fe, W, Pb, Zn, Cu, Au
6 IOCG Fe, Cu, Au, (P, REE, U, Co)
7 Mafic intrusion Fe, Ti, V
8 Mafic or UltraMafic Ni, Cr, Cu, PGE, (Co, Bi, U, Ag)
9 Orogenic Gold Au, (Ag, As, W, Cu, Sb, Bi)
10 Pegmatites Nb, Ta, Sn, Li, Be, (U, REE)
11 Carbonate-hosted deposits Zn, Pb, Ag, Ba
12 Sandstone- and shale-hosted deposits Cu, U, Pb, (Ni, Co, Zn, V, PGE, Re)
13 Sedimentary deposits Fe, Mn, Ba,K,Na,Sr
14 VMS Cu, Zn, Pb, (Ag, Au, Te, Sn, In)
15 Residual deposits Fe, Al, Ni, Cu, (Mn, Au, P, REE)
16 Base metals veins Pb, Zn, Cu, U, (Ba, F)
Deposit types and metal associations
Major ore deposit types and related high-tech metal associations
EU critical raw materials occur in genetic associations with common industrial and other high-tech metals e.g. • In, Ga with Zn • Te, Se, Co with Cu • REE with Fe • PGM with Cr and/or Ni
Source : Friedrich-W. Wellmer, 2008
Predictive map for gallium
Predictive map for indium
European mineral intelligence network
Minerals4EU value chain
Minerals4EU is a Knowledge Base Platform that goes along and in line with the SIP for EIP on RM. It potents a dynamic value chain, delivering adding value intelligence and foresight services, and challenging the development of a permanent structure to achieve sustainable exploitation
Sustainable mineral intelligence network
Critical raw materials central to EU ecomomy
•Raw materials are fundamental to Europe’s economy, and they are essential for maintaining and improving our quality of life. At the heart of this work is defining the critical raw materials for the EU’s economy. These critical raw materials have a high economic importance to the EU combined with a high risk associated with their supply. •The first criticality analysis for raw materials was published in 2010 by the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Defining Critical Raw Materials. Fourteen critical raw materials were identified from a candidate list of forty-one non-energy, non-food materials In the 2013 exercise fifty-four non-energy, non-food materials were analysed.
Green and low-carbon technologies & products
• Low carbon technologies require that the correct resources are available. Many wind turbines designs use magnets containing rare earth elements (REE), and solar panels and energy efficient lighting rely on metals such as silicon, tellurium and indium, amongst others
• Exhaust emissions from internal combustion engines are managed through catalytic converters containing platinum group metals
• Most of the environmental technologies and applications (e.g. photovoltaic cells, electric and hybrid vehicles) allowing energy production from renewable resources will use, so called, high-tech metals (e.g. REE, PGM, niobium, lithium, cobalt, indium, vanadium, tellurium, selenium) that were derived or refined from minerals, which Europe is strongly import dependent on
Major supplying countries of the EU Critical Raw Materials
World primary supply of the 54 candidate raw materials
World primary supply of the 20 critical raw materials
EU primary supply across all candidate materials is estimated at around 9%. In the case of critical raw materials, supply from the EU sources is even more limited.
Comparison of EU critical raw materials from 2010 and 2013.
2010 Assessment only Common to both Assessments 2013 Assessment only
Tantalum Antimony Borates Beryllium Chromium
Cobalt Coking coal* Fluorspar Magnesite Gallium Phosphate Rock*
Germanium Silicon Metal* Indium
Magnesium Natural Graphite
Niobium PGMs
Rare Earths (Heavy) Rare Earths (Light)
Tungsten
2010 Critical Raw Materials
2013 Critical Raw Materials
Uses of the Rare Earth Elements
Targeting REE value chain
Rare Earth Elements (REE) Periodic table highlighting the Light Rare Earth Elements, Heavy Rare Earth Elements and (Y, Sc)
Forecast average annual demand growth to 2020 for critical raw materials (% per year)
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
9%
Nio
bium
Gal
lium
REE
(Hea
vy)
Coba
ltRE
E (L
ight
)In
dium
Mag
nesiu
mCo
king
Coa
lTu
ngst
enCh
rom
ium
Ger
man
ium
PGM
sBo
rate
sN
atur
al G
raph
iteM
agne
site
Silic
on M
etal
Antim
ony
Fluo
rspa
rPh
osph
ates
Bery
llium
Source: Roskill Information Services (September 2013) and other data in the extended profiles
End-of-life recycling rates for REE
Draft map of European REE occurrences
Sökli
Kiruna
Fen
Norra Kärr
Storkwitz
Çanakli
Sarfartoq
Qaqarssuk
Kringlerne
Kvanefjeld
Motzfeldt
Named deposits are subjects of active exploration
Economically feasible projects are progressing in Sweden (Norra Kärr) and Greenland (Kringlerne and Kvanefjeld) with a total potential (resources and reserves) of all three together in the order of 30 million tones REO.
Deep sea nodule deposits
Distribution of average ΣREY contents for surface sediments (<2 m in depth) in the Pacific Ocean e.g. polymetallic nodules
and cobalt rich crusts 110 x10 6 tonnes of REY oxides 73% lights (Ce, La, Nd, Pr), 7% (Sm, Eu, Gd) and 10% heavies (Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu) and 8% Y
•Any EU interests in the Pacific or other international waters? •Any marine REE exploration potential in European seas? •What about Blue Growth challenging actions under H2020?
Belts of REE exploration potential
•Even in the case of 100% recycling efficiency there will never be able to meet the increasing supply demand for most of CRM and REE. •Carbonatites and alkaline rocks may be of high priority but other types such as the granitic pegmatite IOA & IOCG ones need to be explored more efficiently. •Regional scale REE exploration approach could be the interpretation of genetic models linked to continental rifting •Distribution of REE (total, HREE, LREE and individual elements) occurrences in Europé •Reserves and resources in Europe and in individual countries
The trend in Europe is the same as in the rest of the world since 1960s, showing that REE mining projects are mainly related to primary deposit types associated with carbonatites and alkaline igneous rocks, compared to prior to 1950 when most of the bulk REE production derived from monazite-bearing placers.
Europe needs to focus on more effective exploration of critical MRM including REE
It all starts with understanding where critical mineral raw materials deposits occur, how they are formed, and how they can be sustainably extracted!
and Innovation is needed in
the whole value chain as many REE-based critical products are available as by-products of primary mined mineral resources
Both primary and secondary resources, in terms of re-use of by-products and mine wastes/tailings should be explored, evaluated and exploited
