Strategic metals are mostly used in small doses in industry - as in seasoning in the kitchen. The demand for rare spice metals is growing, causing prices to rise in many cases.
A pinch of scandium for lighter aircraft components, a pinch of Indium for the displays of flat screens and smartphones. Known as spice metals in metallurgy, rare earths and technology metals make a significant contribution to the successful production of state-of-the-art electrical engineering. As with spices in the kitchen, which give a dish a distinctive flavour or make it easier to digest, the metallic refinements ensure or improve special material properties. In many cases, only very small quantities in the range of micrograms and grams are used in production. However, despite the low dosage, the metals form an essential component in the material mix of high-tech applications. Their absence makes main metals such as iron or aluminium in alloys less hard, corrosion-resistant, conductive or magnetic.
The salt of modern industry
Generally, selected spice metals are Technology metals, Rare earths and the Precious metals understood. They can be found in the formulas of many key technologies of modern life: in the production of permanent magnets for e-mobility and wind turbines (Neodymium and Praseodymium), lasers (Erbium, Gallium), catalytic converters (Palladium, Platinum), photovoltaic elements (indium), computer chips (gallium) and turbine technology (Hafnium, Rhenium). Like salt in the kitchen, it is impossible to imagine industry without metals. The development of future technology will also depend crucially on their addition. Fuel cells as energy sources and energy converters for hydrogen are dependent on the addition of palladium and Terbium instructed.
The right dosage
Similar to the use of ingredients in the kitchen, spice metals are only added in small quantities during production. The following examples illustrate how low the dosage is:
- Smartphone: A device weighing 111 grams contains, among other things, 0.017 grams of Gold and 0.002 grams of palladium as well as 0.3 grams of rare earths such as neodymium, Dysprosium and gadolinium. Indium is also present in homeopathic doses: 0.004 grams in the display and 0.0022 grams in the circuit board, as determined by the German Mineral Resources Agency and the Federal Institute for Geosciences.
- exhaust catalytic converters: With a total weight of around 1 kilogram, each contains up to 7 grams of platinum and palladium as well as 1-2 grams of rhodium, reports the Waste Advantage Magazine.
- F16 fighter jet: the extent to which rare earths are used in defence technologies is calculated the news portal Rohstoff.net before. The military aircraft weighs around 12 tonnes empty and contains 420 kilograms of rare earths, for example in the form of cobalt and samarium.
Even if the metals are not needed in large quantities, their absence can interrupt the manufacture of products as a result of broken supply chains or export stops. In such cases, the economic damage is likely to far exceed the material value of the imported metals.
Spice metals have to be extracted at great expense
The supply situation for high-tech spices is complex. For one thing, they usually have to travel a long way from the mining area to the place of processing. The most important deposits for rare earths are located in China, for example, from where they are transported to Europe by ship, as was previously the case in the spice trade.
The raw materials are also scarce in many cases and are only extracted as by-products of the main metals. The latter makes their extraction very costly and the quantities extracted cannot be scaled at will. This influences the price. This also increases the urgency of recycling the metals from the end products. However, because the quantities of raw materials are very small and the materials are often used in combination with other materials, e.g. as alloys, profitable recycling models are difficult to realise. Moreover, they alone cannot meet the demand, which is increasing year on year. By 2050, the European economy will require between seven and 26 times more rare earth metals compared to current consumption. This is the conclusion of a Study by the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium).
Scarce and expensive raw materials
The metals, which only weigh a few milligrams in many everyday products, have to be mined by the tonne. Take indium, for example: the production of billions of smartphones and the further development of photovoltaics have caused annual demand to rise from 50 tonnes in the 1980s to 1,000 tonnes today. The maximum global reserves of 15,000 tonnes are spread across a few countries such as China, Canada and Peru, where it is extracted from zinc ore. This has its price. The price per kilo for indium has risen by almost 80 per cent over the past five years. For terbium, the increase has been over 500 per cent. In the medium term, there are therefore many indications that the prices for these extremely valuable spice metals could continue to rise.
