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Europe goes critical

June 21, 2010 - 00:00 GMT

KEYWORDS: rare earths , graphite , fluorspar , EU , European Commission , raw material , policy

European Commission report forecasts shortages of 14 raw materials

The high supply risk is mainly due to a high share of global production of these materials coming from a small number of countries outside the EU, namely China, Russia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Brazil (see chart below).

As we know, one customer’s “critical” or “strategic” mineral is not the same as another’s, and clearly the EC has to start its evaluation process with some parameters. That said, it’s difficult not to be a little picky on some items.

For example, regarding bauxite: while metallurgical bauxite maybe widely available, refractory grade material can only be sourced from China and Guyana, with the former reducing...

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