{"id":92290,"date":"2021-09-27T14:58:47","date_gmt":"2021-09-27T11:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/?p=92290"},"modified":"2021-09-27T14:58:48","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T11:58:48","slug":"demand-for-mined-raw-materials-has-skyrocketed-supply-cannot-keep-pace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/demand-for-mined-raw-materials-has-skyrocketed-supply-cannot-keep-pace\/","title":{"rendered":"Demand for mined raw materials has skyrocketed, supply cannot keep pace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The standard of living and the green revolution are forcing researchers, politicians, and companies to look for solutions to secure the raw materials supply chain. Already, Europe is facing a supply crisis of mineral resources. While exploration of underground resources and finding new deposits continues, people also need to be more aware of the circular economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veiko Karu, Head of the Mineral Resources and Applied\nGeology Division at the TalTech Geology Department, recommends everyone\nlook around their home to understand how many mined resources we use in our\neveryday lives. \u201cAlmost every home has a refrigerator, stove, oven, coffee\nmachine, kettle, washing machine, TV, smartphone, etc.,\u201d Karu lists the\ntechnical equipment people use daily. In addition, we have clothing and\nfootwear, sporting goods, vehicles from the bike to the car, furniture, laundry\nsupplies. \u201cA lot of these items are made from mined raw materials, mostly from\na specific metal or an alloy,\u201d Karu points out. \u201cAnd if this item or device\nhappens to be smart, it also contains a variety of rare earth that we can only\nfind in a few places on Earth: tungsten, cobalt, and other materials needed to\nproduce chips and smart devices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Head of the Applied Geology\ndivision points out that on top of this, raw materials are also needed to build\nour homes and build equipment that generates electricity and heat. These can\nalso be rare or subject to critical procurement situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30 critical elements of raw material<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of critical mineral\nresources, Veiko Karu confirms that we need to look at the bigger picture,\nwhere supply and demand cannot keep pace. \u201cDeveloped countries are hugely\ninterested in modern green technologies, which, for example, allow the\nproduction of CO2-free electricity. As a result, the demand has skyrocketed. At\nthe same time, the production is unable to keep up because the mineral\nresources needed to produce the equipment in question are not located in\nEurope, but elsewhere in the world: in Africa, Asia, South America,\u201d Karu adds,\nunderlining the challenges related to procuring resources from these regions.\nThat is why the European Union is constantly monitoring the demand and\navailability of raw materials \u2013 30 elements are currently on the special\n\u2018critical list,\u2019 meaning that a lot of effort has to go into ensuring the\nfunctioning of their supply chains.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Karu, the research of\nEuropean crustal resources is facing increasing challenges. \u201cWe are going\ndeeper and deeper into Earth\u2019s crust in search of new deposits. Residual\ndeposits at existing mining sites are also constantly surveyed to obtain the necessary\nelements through additional processing.\u201d The discovery, exploration, and\nregistration of new deposits is a time-consuming process, whereas the demand\nfor battery materials, for example, is increasing quickly. \u201cTherefore, we are\nwitnessing the emergence of gaps in supply security \u2013 new deposits cannot be\nregistered and mining plans made quickly enough,\u201d Karu admits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complete value chain<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So, in addition to finding new mining opportunities, the circular economy of raw materials must be put in place, and the complete chain of raw materials must be established. \u201cA complete value chain means that if an important mineral raw material has already been brought out of Earth\u2019s crust, it will remain in circulation and will not end up in a landfill,\u201d Veiko Karu explains. He gives a practical example: \u201cFor example, mined gold was processed to end up on your desktop computer\u2019s motherboard, the computer went through its lifecycle and, after several repairs, was recycled, which meant that it was divided into metallic and non-metallic parts. The metallic part was processed in a way that put the gold on a microchip in a Tesla car bought by your neighbor for his wife\u2019s birthday. Should the Tesla be recycled at one point, that same gold could end up in the next person\u2019s refrigerator electronics and so on.\u201d According to Karu, Estonia still has a long way to go. \u201cGradually, new companies are emerging that mediate information about surplus materials that could potentially be raw material for others. One such platform is called Materjalivoog.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is equally important that every\nindividual contribute. \u201cThe main problem with the recycling of mineral\nresources is people\u2019s awareness,\u201d Karu emphasizes. \u201cIf the best a person can do\nis just throw unneeded or broken goods in the trash without thinking twice, we\nstill have a lot of ground to cover. Local governments handle waste management,\nbut there is definitely a need to inform the public better on what to take\nwhere, and how to sort the waste in advance at home.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mineral raw materials through either recycling or mining<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, product\ndevelopment must change to become more compatible with recycling. Veiko Karu\nknows companies whose products are almost 100% recyclable. He brings the\nexample of Comodule\u2019s e-scooter Tuul, which is 90% recyclable after the end of\nits five-year life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karu hopes that our social organization and technological capability might one day allow us to trace each product to the extent: we know where it was produced, how its materials were procured, whether the procurement of material and the production of the equipment have been fairly taxed, and whether the companies involved have a good track record of environmental and social responsibility. \u201cThis is exactly what TalTech Department of Geology and its international partners are working on in the projects Re-Sourcing and Sumex,\u201d Karu confirms. The Department of Geology will also be represented at the international GreenEst Summit<\/a> 2021 on October 27\u201328 in Tallinn, bringing together experts in the field with discussions focusing on raw materials, their recycling, and the value chain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u201cTo avoid mineral raw material crisis, we must\nindividually and collectively agree and understand that we need mineral\nresources to maintain and improve living standards, and we only get them\nthrough recycling or mining.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The standard of living and the green revolution are forcing researchers, politicians, and companies to look for solutions to secure the raw materials supply chain. Already, Europe is facing a supply crisis of mineral resources. While exploration of underground resources and finding new deposits continues, people also need to be more aware of the circular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":91802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92293,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92290\/revisions\/92293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}