‘Risk list’ of valuable elements revealed

A “risk list” of 52 valuable elements which could soon be in short supply has been published by the British Geological Survey.

The list ranks elements according to a risk factor based on their abundance, accessibility and where they are produced.

It includes metals and “rare earth elements” found in mobile phones and electric motors which are critical to a low-carbon digital economy.

In many cases, global production of the elements is concentrated in a small number of countries.

China is the leading producer of 27 of the elements listed, and supplies 97 per cent of the world’s rare earth elements.

Experts speaking at the British Science Festival at the University of Bradford yesterday said action was needed to expand supplies of the elements, either with more mining or recycling.

Andrew Bloodworth, head of minerals and waste at the BGS, said: “We need to diversify supplies of metal, especially those critical in delivering green economy and digital technologies, by finding new resources from the earth, by recycling more and doing more with less.”

Colleague Frances Wall, professor and head of the Camborne School of Mines, a centre for mining research in Cornwall, said: “There is a wide range of potential deposits around the world that could be mined, which would take away the monopoly of current suppliers of these metals.”

Digital technology was hugely demanding of critical metals, said the experts.

Since mobile phones came into existence, more than nine billion had been made around the world with more than 50 million now being manufactured a year, they said. Each contained an average 24 milligrams of gold along with many other metal components. Although they can be recycled, it is often difficult to extract the embedded elements.