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The European Union has identified 30 raw materials as critical for industry. Their supply is endangered by conflicts, a weak rule of law and trade monopolies. And one nation controls more than all others.

Ore chunks containing red cobalt from Australia are often processed in China before being used in catalysts and batteries

They might sparkle in shades of violet, red and silver, or they might look like dirty rocks, but critical raw materials such as cobalt or germanium have two things in common. They are all both rare and vital for the production of everyday items like smartphones, solar panels and electric vehicles. 

The European Union has identified 30 such resources — which cannot currently be substituted — as crucial for the defense and renewables sectors, as well as in the manufacture of robotics, drones and batteries. Unlike steel, cement and oil, the global production of many critical raw materials amounts to just a few thousand tons per year. And it is controlled by only a handful of countries. 

Though not readily available across the globe, there are several critical resources hot spots. South Africa's north has reserves of platinum and vanadium, while Congo is home to cobalt deposits and the United States extracts beryllium. China, meanwhile, has mining access to two-thirds of the different 30 critical raw materials, including antimony, baryte and rare earth elements.

The unequal geographical spread of critical raw materials is reflected in market share. China is one of the top three suppliers of many of the elements, way ahead of the United States and Russia. This dominance is partly attributable to deposits across China itself, but it is also down to deliberate planning.

"China has strategically developed mining and processing. […] These days it's the Shanghai Metal Exchange that's important, not the London Metal Exchange," said Hanns Günther Hilpert, head of the Asia Research Division of the German think tank SWP. 

At mines in northern China, excavators dig out ores of rare earth elements

"There is a quote from Deng Xiaoping: 'The Middle East has oil, China has rare earths.' But that was just the beginning." 

The 1987 quote by China's former leader described the country's global market dominance not only in the mining sector but also in the processing industry. Smelting, for example, is also primarily done in China. 

"The country has built a know-how that is unique worldwide," said Hilpert. "Even when alternative deposits are mined, most of the processing take place in China — before being exported abroad again." 

That makes China both the biggest producer of critical raw materials, but also the leading importer of those mined elsewhere. To secure yet further direct access, Chinese companies invest in foreign mines, extracting cobalt in Congo or platinum in South Africa. It's a strategy Beijing applies to resources China lacks, as well as to those it has in abundance — such as fluorspar or silicon metals used in solar panels.

In preparation for transportation, excavators load ores of rare earth at the port of Lianyungang in eastern China

According to Hilpert, besides controlling supply chains of critical raw materials, China's dominance has been facilitated by lax regulations that allowed it to neglect environmental follow-up costs and pay low wages. But this dominance is also obtained by the use of export restrictions and by offering subsidies for companies to build factories — all to promote its processing industry and technology providers.

This allows China to fight off competitors. "Ultimately, the Chinese have been able to force other suppliers out of the market with ruinous price competition," Hilpert said.

The 10 biggest suppliers cannot keep pace, and their collective share of global production is just 35%, as opposed to China's 45%. 

China's dominance isn't the only concern for future supply.

Many materials are mined in Asian or African countries characterized by civil unrest, corruption or authoritarian leadership. Cobalt is a prime example. Almost 60% of global supply originates from Congo, where internal conflict has been rife for decades. 

As such, cobalt is a so-called "conflict mineral," meaning it is subject to closer public scrutiny by dint of being extracted in a place of unrest and sold to perpetuate fighting. 

In the unstable eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, treasures like gold and tin attract opportunistic militia. The violent groups exploit people, including children, to mine for "conflict minerals." With the revenue they buy weapons to conquer more territories and perpetuate the fighting.

MONUSCO, the UN's biggest and most expensive peace-keeping mission, is working to stabilize the provinces of North and South Kivu, which lie at the center of the country's violence. Security forces patrol mining villages like Nzibira, which sits at the edge of Zola Zola, a legal cassiterite mine.

Cassiterite is just one of the minerals used in mobile phones. Half of the world's production of those minerals comes from Central Africa. The DRC's export of tin, gold and other ore has been under particular scrutiny since 2010, when laws were introduced in the United States requiring listed US companies to ensure their supply chains were free from "conflict minerals".

A poster in Nzibira explains how sacks of minerals need to be properly sealed and labeled by the mine inspector so their legal origin can be proven to US firms. The system, however, has many gaps. Illicit mines can simply sell their yield on the black market or smuggle their goods into a legal mine to have them packed there.

Despite efforts by rights groups, human rights violations remain widespread in mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Children like Esperance Furahaare, who was kidnapped and raped by militia when she was 14 years old, are common victims of exploitation and violence.

Mines, which are difficult to police, can also harm the environment and surrounding communities. At illegal mines, waste water runoff often makes its way into local water sources, polluting the supply.

US lawmakers are currently trying to advance a bill that would eliminate the 2010 reforms. Legislators argue that the Dodd-Frank Act has stifled economic development in the US and has not effectively addressed exploitation in Central Africa. While US companies must ensure their supplies are not conflict minerals, all they are expected to do is ask their suppliers, not supply proof or origin.

There are question marks over the future supply of a further 10 critical raw materials quarried in countries with non-independent courts and high corruption rates. The concerns are around antimony, bismuth, gallium, germanium, light and heavy rare earths, which are mined in Tajikistan, China, Russia and Laos as well as magnesium, niobium, phosphorus and tungsten found in Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Russia and China. 

They can be seen in the bottom left quadrant of the following chart.

Experts agree their future supply could be affected by nepotism, undemocratic leadership, trading restrictions, civil unrest or even inner-state military conflicts.

The possible consequences for the processing industry include disrupted supply chains, high downtime costs for halted production and boycott calls by consumers when products are publicly associated with human rights violations.

After a rare earth supply crisis in 2010, new mines like this one in Malaysia started to quarry rare metals elsewhere

Such risks affect producers and buyers alike. Industrialized economies suffer from a lack of resources for future technologies, while mining nations stand to lose income and paid jobs.

In 2019, for example, the Swiss mining company Glencore announced the closure of its Mutanda Mine in southern Congo due to higher taxes, rising costs, a lower world market price of cobalt and the increased pressure to stop importing the metal from a war zone. Thousands of workers could lose their jobs. However, these plans have not yet been implemented. The mine is "on maintenance," Glencore said.

In its capacity as a buyer, the EU is currently developing a new strategy to ensure "open and unrestricted trade in raw materials," said a spokesperson for the defense industry and space division at the European Commission. 

"When other countries restrict the export of critical raw materials, the EU takes the necessary action to get the export restrictions removed," the spokesperson said.

In 2012, Europe, the US and Japan won a case brought to the World Trade Organization (WTO), that forced China to drop export restrictions on critical raw materials. 

In February of this year, following a request by the EU, the WTO established a panel to assess Indonesia's export restrictions on raw materials. 

Antimony is a gray metalloid, which is often used to harden other metals. The origin of its name is disputed. One speculation claims it derives from "anti" and "monos," which collectively mean "a metal not found alone". Antimony often occurs as a compound. In ancient Egypt and ancient India, it was powdered and used as medicine or compressed into sticks for use as cosmetics — especially eyeliner.

Baryte, which means "heavy" in Greek, is a barium sulfate, commonly found in lead-zinc veins in limestone. Its crystals, which often grow in sand and contain grains of sand within their structure, form into clusters known as baryte roses. Baryte can be clear, or can shimmer in hues of yellow, red, green or pale blue.

The incredible staircase-like shapes that characterize bismuth are the result of the outside growing faster than the inside. Another unusual feature of this brittle crystalline metal is that it is denser in liquid form than in a solid state. When it freezes, bismuth — just like water — expands. It is used in fire detectors and extinguishers, as well as in cosmetics and paints.

Cobalt takes its name from subterranean German goblins known as "Kobolde." Centuries ago, German miners inhaled toxic fumes released from rocks while extracting ores during the melting process. When they fell sick, they blamed it on goblins. In 1960 cobalt caused a series of deaths when breweries in Quebec added it to their beer to help ensure a good foam. Nearly 50 people died from heart failure.

Fluorspar is a colorless, transparent mineral that often contains impurities and hydrocarbons, and which can change color and glow when exposed to ultraviolet light. It is frequently used to lower the melting point of metals during processing. Fluorspar occurs as a compound with lead and silver ores, as well as alone in limestone.

Gallium melts at just 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit), making it the only metal to melt when held in a human hand. By contrast, it doesn't start to boil until it reaches the unusually high temperature of 2,204 degrees Celsius. Gallium is generally produced as a byproduct of bauxite and is used for semiconductors. When added to other metals, gallium causes them to become brittle.

Lithium is the lightest metal of all and the least dense solid element. If it weren't reacting with water, it would float on its surface. Lithium is one of the three elements — besides hydrogen and helium — to form during the Big Bang. Current theories suggest there should be three times more lithium in the universe today than is actually the case. It is not known where the rest of it went.

When added to steel, niobium creates an outstanding structural strength, even though it only represents 0.1% of the alloy. It is used in jet engines, superconducting magnets and MRI machines. Niobium is named after the Greek goddess of tears, Niobe, daughter of mythological King Tantalus, whose name was later given to the metal tantalum. Niobium and tantalum are always found together in nature.

In 1546, scientist Georgius Agricola wrote about German Ore Mountain miners who, during the melting process, reported a black and "hairy" metal that reduced their tin yield like a "wolf devours a sheep." Foam appeared on the surface, binding to their tin inseparably. The miners named the metal wolffram, meaning wolf's foam. The name was later dropped for the Swedish alternative: tungsten.

To reduce its dependency on external suppliers, the EU is pursuing two main approaches. According to its 2020 action plan, the bloc proposes diversifying the sources of its raw materials — including though the use of deposits within the EU. The EU Commission spokesperson said member states have been asked to identify mining and processing projects within their territories "that can be operational by 2025." 

The mission of the European Raw Materials Alliance — a network largely consisting of mining companies — is to financially support existing new mining sites or to establish new ones "to increase EU resilience in [...] value chains, as this is vital to most of EU industrial ecosystems, such as renewable energy, defence and space."

The second main approach is to "reduce dependency through circular use of resources." It's disputed whether recycling will have a significant impact, or whether industries will ultimately have to find substitutes.

This article is part 1 of a series. Read more:

Part 2: Rare rocks: Reuse and substitutes of critical resources

Part 3: Toxic and radioactive: The damage from mining rare elements

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