Strengthening the European rare earths supply-chain

Salla Ahonen (1) , Nikolaos Arvanitidis (2) , Anton Auer (3) , Emilie Baillet (4) , Nazario Bellato (5) , Koen Binnemans (6) , Gian Andrea Blengini (7) , Danilo Bonato (8) , Ewa Brouwer (9) , Sybolt Brower (10) , Matthias Buchert (11) , Reinhard Bütikofer (12) , Helena Cavaco Viegas (12) , Andrzej Chmielarz (13) , Patrice Christmann (14) , Claire Claessen (15) , Gwenole Cozigou (12) , Daniel De Oliveira (16) , Eimear Deady (17) , Ronny Denis (18) , Flor Diaz Pulido (12) , Maria Edvardsson (12) , Danilo Fontana (19) , Christer Forsgren (20) , Jean Christophe Gabriel (21) , Roland Gauss (22) , Marko Gernuks (23) , Alan Gibbon (24) , Magnus Gislev (12) , James R. J. Goddin (25) , Manuel Gomez (12) , Mario Gonçalves (26) , Kathryn Goodenough (17) , Torsten Graupner (27) , Milan Grohol (12) , Oliver Gutfleisch (28) , Jens Gutzmer (29) , Horst Hejny (30) , Henning Holmstrom (31) , Slavomir Hredzak (32) , Eeva Jernström (33) , Animesh Jha (34) , Per Kalvig (35) , Roderick Kefferputz (12) , David Kennedy (36) , Jaakko Kooroshy (37) , Floriana La Marca (38) , Olivier Larcher (39) , Magnus Leijd (40) , Herman Lenting (41) , Friederike Lindner (42) , Elbert Loois (43) , Patricia Lopez Vicente (44) , Paul Lusty (17) , Terence Makanyire (34) , Patrice Millet (12) , Antonia Morales (45) , Zoltan Nemeth (46) , Alessandro Ocera (47) , Erik Offerman (48) , Konstantinos Papavasileiou (49) , Ioannis Paspaliaris (49) , David Phillip Peck (48) , Mattia Pellegrini (12) , S Pellet-Rostaing (50) , Urs Peuker (51) , Maarten Quix (10) , Marja Liisa Räisänen (52) , Enrique Redondo (53) , Xavier Revest (4) , Alain Rollat (39) , Justin Salminen (54) , Sergio Sanchez-Segad (34) , Ilona Santavaara (1) , Gerhard Schmidt (11) , Richard Sheridan (55) , Axel Sjöqvist (56) , Slavko Solar (12) , Mats Sundgren (57) , Colin Tattam (15) , Maria Taxiarchou (58) , Michael Taylor (59) , Guenter Tiess (60) , Arnold Tukker (61) , Casper van Der Eijk (62) , Alexis Van Maercke (12) , Janneke Van Veen (63) , Silvia Vecchione (64) , Karl Vrancken (65) , Hong Vu (66) , Allan Walton (55) , Erik Westin (67) , Antje Wittenberg (27) , Hermann Wotruba (68) , Guozhu Ye (57) , Sebastian Zaleski (12)

1 NOKIA Research Center
2 SGU - Geological Survey of Sweden
3 Treibacher Industrie
4 ERAMET - ERAMET
5 Magneti Marelli Powertrain
6 University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
7 JRC - European Commission - Joint Research Centre [Ispra]
8 ReMedia Group
9 Fraunhofer ISC - Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research
10 Umicore IR Glass
11 Oeko-Institut
12 UE - Union Européenne = European Union
13 Instytut Metali Niezelaznych
14 BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM)
15 KT - Knowledge Technology group [Hamburg]
16 LNEG - Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia
17 BGS - British Geological Survey
18 Toyota Research Institute
19 ENEA - Italian National agency for new technologies, Energy and sustainable economic development [Frascati]
20 Stena Metall group
21 CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives
22 Fraunhofer IWU Project Group Resource-Efficient Mechatronic Processing Machines
23 Volkswagen AG
24 MIRO - Mineral Industry Research Organisation
25 Granta Design Limited
26 OI-FCUL - Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon
27 BGR - Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources
28 TU Darmstadt - Technische Universität Darmstadt - Technical University of Darmstadt
29 HIF - Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology
30 MinPol GmbH - Agency for international minerals policy
31 Tasman Metals AB
32 SAS - Slovak Academy of Sciences
33 Lappeenranta University of Technology
34 University of Leeds
35 GEUS - Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
36 Less Common Metals Ltd
37 Chatham House
38 UNIROMA - Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" = Sapienza University [Rome]
39 Solvay (France)
40 Tasman Metals AB
41 TNO Centre for Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences
42 Bosch
43 RA Resource Alliance GmbH
44 EDA - European Defence Agency
45 European Chemicals Council (Cefic) Long-Range Research Initiative, 1160 Brussels, Belgium; Hubesch Consult BVBA, 1600 Sint-Pieters-Leeuw
46 State Geological Institute of Dionýz Štúr
47 Leonardo-Finmeccanica Company
48 TU Delft - Delft University of Technology
49 University of Athens, Athens
50 ICSM - UMR 5257 - Institut de Chimie Séparative de Marcoule
51 Freiberg University of Mining and Technology
52 GKT - Geological Survey of Finland = Geologian tutkimuskeskus tuottaa
53 Ecolec Caen
54 VTT - VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
55 University of Birmingham [Birmingham]
56 GU - Göteborgs Universitet = University of Gothenburg
57 Swerea Mefos Ab
58 NTUA - National Technical University of Athens [Athens]
59 Gladstone Institutes [San Francisco]
60 MU - University of Leoben
61 TNO - The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research
62 SINTEF Energy Research
63 OVAM
64 European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association
65 VITO - Flemish Institute for Technological Research
66 ICT - Institute of Chemical Technology [Prague]
67 Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
68 RWTH - Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen University

Policy recommendations: 1. Maintaining and strengthening the European Rare Earth Elements (REE) skills and knowledge base through research funding, science and technology education and international cooperation. Without cutting-edge research and technical expertise, a European high-tech REE industry cannot flourish. The EC and Member States should support funding for research grants, scholarships, and training networks, and enhance European and international cooperation through coordinated calls, researcher exchanges, and joint high-level conferences. 2. Creating the basis for informed decision-making on REEs through a European Critical Materials Observatory. Mapping and monitoring of REE supply chains is necessary for informed decision-making. Expertise in Europe could be pooled in a virtual Critical Materials Observatory that provides the public with consistent and authoritative knowledge on REEs (e.g., information on advanced exploration projects, prices, key demand and supply trends, and the urban mine potential). 3. Support promising technologies through funding industry-led pilot plants for innovative HREE processing. The EC, industry and Member States should accelerate the commercialization and scaling up of key technologies through co-financing industry-led pilot plants. This should include pilots for REE recovery from heavy rare earths-rich minerals, direct-alloy recycling routes, process and sensor equipment for REE recycling, and REE recovery from industrial residues. 4. Levelling the playing field for European HREE exploration through co-funding for prefeasibility and bankable feasibility studies. Support from federal and state governments in the U.S., Australia and Canada has played a critical role in advancing project exploration. The EC and Member States should evaluate possibilities for supporting the extensive R&D necessary for pre-feasibility and bankable feasibility studies, to avoid high quality deposits in Europe simply going unexplored. 5. Making waste management REE-friendly through eco-design, incentive schemes for collecting priority waste products, and streamlining policy and waste regulation. The EC and Member States should promote recycling-friendly design to help identify and recover REE components in waste more easily. Potential incentives for stimulating REE waste collection should be evaluated and the shipment of REE wastes should be facilitated. More consistency should also be created in implementing and applying existing waste regulations. 6. Boost supply security and de-risk strategic REE investment cases through enhanced cooperation among European end-users and other stakeholders. Leading end-users should engage in strategic cooperation across industry and with governments. This could include setting up a voluntary European ‘critical raw materials fund’, establishing a ‘European Resource Alliance’ similar to the German Rohstoffallianz, and convening a high-level taskforce to examine ways in which public funding could support resilient REE supply chains for Europe.

Mots clés: Rare Earth Elements REEs

Domaines: Chimie; Sciences de l'environnement; Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]; Économie et finance quantitative [q-fin]

Salla Ahonen, Nikolaos Arvanitidis, Anton Auer, Emilie Baillet, Nazario Bellato, et al.. Strengthening the European rare earths supply-chain: challenges and policy options . A report by the European rare earths competency network (ERECON). [Technical Report] European Commission. 2015. ⟨cea-01550114⟩