Supply of some critical raw materials by European industry is becoming more and more difficult. After the case of natural textile fibres, in particular cotton, and timber, over the last few years the problem of rare earths (REs) availability has also risen. The 97% of the global supply of rare...

Platinum is increasingly used intentionally and non-intentionally in several applications. This has raised the concern about its future resources, emissions and losses during its life cycle. On the one hand, increasing platinum emissions might affect human health. On the other hand, the...

The adverse impacts of climate change are widely recognized as well as the importance of the mitigation of carbon dioxide (CO2). Battery driven vehicles are expected to have a bright future, since GHG emissions can be reduced. Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries appear to be the most promising, due...

Meeting the demand for mineral commodities is crucial for sustainable development and social welfare. Prospecting and exploration in Poland in the second half of 20th century allowed to discover and demonstrate important resources of various minerals. National economic security regarding the...

Today, the fight against global warming and the coming hydrocarbon exhaustion involve a drastic increase of clean energies. These technologies resort to many minor metals which are byproduct of major metals. We will take the definition of Hagelüken and Mesker (2010, Complex Life Cycles of...

This paper performs a quantitative analysis of iron ore prices. The analysis will focus on two general issues. First, are prices more volatile before or after the introduction of spot market pricing in 2008/2009? Second, has the change in pricing regime had a significant effect on the iron ore...

Some strategic raw materials do have an extremely unsecure supply situation. Several working groups around the world have made criticality assessments for metallic raw materials to analyze the driving impact factors for this instability. However, the influences on raw material availability are...

In recent years, commodity markets show a large amount of volatility and substantial price jumps, indicating an increasing economic scarcity in many cases. As this scarcity makes commodity procurement a critical issue for national economies, industry sectors and manufacturing companies, a number...