Background on Critical Minerals

Critical Minerals are essential to achieve the energy transition towards a low-carbon economy. They contribute to meet the objective of tripling renewable energy production by 2030 and doubling energy efficiency by 2030, thereby remaining on track with the Paris Agreement.

Critical minerals, play a crucial role in the production of clean energy technologies, including renewable energy technologies, energy storage, and electric vehicles. These minerals include, but are not limited to, lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earth elements, copper, and graphite. The term "critical" refers to their pivotal role in the clean energy transition, and the urgent demand for these resources to remain on track with the Paris agreement.

The International Energy Agency estimates that demand for critical minerals in clean energy technologies could increase by up to four times by 2040, under their Net Zero Scenario. This growing demand presents both opportunities and challenges for the global community.

Key challenges associated with critical minerals include availability, price volatility, and sustainability. The concentration of production and processing in a few economies creates potential vulnerabilities in the supply chain. Price volatility due to supply-demand imbalances and market speculation can impact the supply of these minerals. Government policies in this area are constantly evolving. Additionally, the environmental and social impacts across critical mineral value chains, from mining operations to processing, manufacturing, use and to end of life raise concerns about their sustainability.

To address these challenges, global collaboration and innovation are essential. Governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector must work together to create transparent policies and regulations, build capacity for stakeholder engagement and governance, and ensure sustainability, fairness, equity and compliance with labor standards and the protection of communities' rights, including indigenous people. Financing sustainable infrastructure projects aligned with environmental and ethical standards, promoting global and regional connectivity to overcome supply chain bottlenecks, and supporting data availability, research and knowledge sharing are also crucial steps in building a resilient and responsible critical mineral supply chain for the clean energy transition. Open and predictable trade, sustainable and fair trade of critical minerals and their value chains, is necessary for the clean energy transition to succeed.

A short non-exhaustive description of some critical minerals and their illustrative energy transition related use, is provided below:

Aluminum (Al) is a lightweight metal, used in lithium-ion battery, fuels cells, electric traction motors, wind energy, solar /photo-voltaic.

Bauxite (Ba) is a primary ore of aluminum, processed to produce aluminum, thereby used ultimately for aluminum applications.

Arsenic (As) is a metalloid used in fuel cells and semi-conductors.

Borates (Bo) is a mineral containing Boron and is used in Solar and wind energy (in glass).

Cadmium (Cd) is a metal used in solar photovoltaic and batteries.

Chromium (Ch) is used in alloys (associated with cobalt, nickel…) to provide corrosion-resistance and strength, in applications such as fuels cells, wind energy.

Cobalt (Co) is a metal used for lithium-ion battery, fuels cells, wind energy for example.

Copper (Cu) is a metal widely used in electrical applications, including electrical wiring for wind turbines, solar panels, EVs, and grid infrastructure.

Fluorspar is mineral form of calcium fluoride and is used in the production of aluminum, thereby used for lithium-ion Battery and in solar photovoltaic.

Gallium, Germanium and Indium are used in high-efficiency solar cells and efficient magnets. Indium is in particular used as transparent conductive coatings in thin-film solar cells.

Gold is used in solar energy.

Graphite is used in Lithium-ion batteries (as anode material) and in fuel cells.

Lead is a heavy metal, used in batteries (e.g. lead-acid batteries) for energy storage.

Lithium is used in lithium-ion battery, and fuels cells

Magnesium is used in lightweight alloys in fuel cells components, and supports efficiency, in EV.

Manganese is used in lithium-ion battery, fuels cells, wind energy

Molybdenum is used in alloys, and for wind energy, solar energy and hydrogen production.

Nickel is used in alloys for its (marine) corrosion resistance, including for wind and wave energy. It is also in lithium-ion battery, fuels cells. Nickel containing stainless stell is applied in solar energy.

Tantalum, Vanadium, Niobium

• Tantalum is used as alloys for wind energy (blades), and in electric vehicles.
• Vanadium is used in magnets, energy storage and in wind turbines.
• Niobium is used for in alloys (stainless steel) and in superconductive magnets. wind turbines, and wind energy infrastructure. Niobium is also used in Lithium-ion Batteries. Niobium is closely associated with tantalum in ores and in properties.

Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) is A group including platinum, palladium, and rhodium, used amongst other in fuel cells.

Rhodium is used in fuel cells.

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) covers a group of 17 elements (Cerium , Dysprosium, Erbium, Europium, Gadolinium, Holmium, Lanthanum, Lutetium, Neodymium, Praseodymium, Promethium, Rubidium, Samarium, Samarium, Scandium, Terbium, Thulium, Ytterbium, Yttrium). Rare Earth Elements are used in variety of application, including lithium-ion battery, fuels cells, wind energy, electric traction motors.

Selenium is used in Thin-film photovoltaic cells for solar energy.

Silicon is used in solar cells in solar energy, as an alloy (eg for aluminum) and insulator for electricity

Silver is used as conductive material in solar panels, particularly in photovoltaic cells.

Tin is used in lithium-ion battery, solar energy.

Titanium is a metal used in geothermal energy.

Tungsten is used for solar energy.

Zinc is used for fuels cells

Zirconium is used in lithium-ion battery, as well as fuel cells