Content

The Mineral Choices website draws together a variety of resources designed to inform and encourage debate. Here you will find articles, interviews, infographics, summaries of academic papers and recommended videos and podcasts relating to the demand for critical minerals . We hope you find it useful.

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Mineral Supply Risk

US Geological Survey Releases 2022 List of Critical Minerals

Which mineral supply chains will be most under threat in the near future?

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Climate Change

Why Minerals Matter

Minerals play key roles in all of our lives. The beauty of these valuable resources should not be overlooked.

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Demand Drivers

Cobalt and Nickel for a Battery-Powered Future

Why won't current mining practices be enough to meet our green energy needs?

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Climate Change

Rich Rocks, the Climate Crisis, and the Tech Imperium

A series organised by the Research Institute for the History of Science and Technology (RIHST) at Caltech and The Huntington

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Climate Change

Can we save the planet by shrinking the economy?

An article from Vox on the “degrowth” movement.

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Circular Economy

Primary Materials in the Emerging Circular Economy

Implications for upstream resource producers and primary material exporters

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Mineral Supply Risk

The Sheila Khama Extractives Podcast

16th Jul 2021

A fascinating series on artisanal small scale mining, featuring guests from a broad range of relevant fields

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Circular Economy

Comparing the costs and benefits of virgin and urban mining

Urban mining through a circular economy has emerged as a promising option for securing copper and aluminum resources.

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Mineral Supply Risk

SCMP: China-backed projects in Africa targeted by environmental groups

A recent article in the South China Morning Post highlights how environmental groups have started targeting some Chinese-backed projects in Africa in a [...]

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Mineral Supply Risk

The New Yorker: The Dark Side of Congo’s Cobalt Rush

In an extensive and troubling read, The New Yorker has explored in detail the ‘dark side’ of the Congo’s cobalt rush, which has [...]

1622554554

Mineral Supply Risk

IGF Guidance for Governments: Environmental Management and Mining Governance

The key issues, benchmarks, and standards in four main areas of environmental management in mining

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Climate Change

Mining Our Green Future

The green energy revolution is heavily reliant on raw materials, such as cobalt and lithium, which are currently mainly sourced by mining. We [...]

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Climate Change

International Energy Agency: The role of critical minerals in clean energy transitions

World Energy Outlook special report

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Sustainable Development Goals

UNESCO lecture series on earth materials for a sustainable and thriving society

30th Apr 2021

Recordings and materials related to the UNESCO Lecture Series organised in collaboration with IUGS and iCRAG

1619688836

Mineral Supply Risk

Digital mining in the age of social awareness

Exploring the mining industry's new normal

1619084700

Climate Change

U.K. target to cut emissions by 78% by 2035 is world-leading – but to hit it, action is needed now

By Piers Forster, Professor of Physical Climate Change; Director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate, University of Leeds

1617702842

Mineral Supply Risk

The U.S. is worried about its critical minerals supply chains – essential for electric vehicles, wind power and the nation’s defense

By Jordy Lee, Payne Institute Program Manager, Colorado School of Mines and Morgan Bazilian, Professor of Public Policy and Director, Payne Institute, Colorado [...]

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Demand Drivers

As cobalt demand booms, companies must do more to protect Congolese miners

By Dorothee Baumann-Pauly, Adjunct Professor and Director of the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights, Université de Genève and Serra Cremer Iyi, [...]

1616961300

Climate Change

Millions of electric cars will need charging in the future – but how?

By Miguel Valdez, Lecturer in Technology and Innovation Management, The Open University; Matthew Cook, Professor of Innovation, The Open University, and Stephen Potter, [...]

1616960166

Climate Change

Biden plans to fight climate change in a way no U.S President has done before

By Bill Ritter Jr., Director, Center for the New Energy Economy, Colorado State University

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Mineral Supply Risk

Manganese Mining in Gabon

By Dr Apoli Bertrand Kameni

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Interview with Professor Jacques Demajorovic

A short interview with Jacques Demajorovic, a professor of the Graduate Program in Administration at Centro Universitário FEI in Brazil

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Circular Economy

Emerging anthropogenic circularity science: principles, practices, and challenges

Anthropogenic circularity science will play an increasing role in enabling a smooth transition to a circular society.

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Mineral Supply Risk

Repurposing mine tailings using microbial induced calcium carbonate precipitation

19th Feb 2021

A talk on Wednesday 24 February 2021 with Dr Dyllon Randall on manufacturing bio-bricks and bio-tiles from copper mine tailings.

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Demand Drivers

The Economist – Money Talks

11th Feb 2021

Twin peaks - oil’s price rises alongside battery metals intended to replace it

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Mineral Supply Risk

The Economics Of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review

Sir Partha Dasgupta, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge, has published a landmark new report, first commissioned by the UK [...]

1612261439

Circular Economy

What if every city used doughnut economics?

2nd Feb 2021

In episode 7 of Rob Hopkins' podcast, "From What If To What Next", Kate Raworth – an economist and author of Doughnut Economics [...]

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Demand Drivers

State of Batteries Report 2020

The State of Batteries Report 2020 summarises the most significant developments in the battery industry over the last year.

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Climate Change

National Geographic – renewable energy 101

There are many benefits to using renewable energy resources, but what is it exactly? From solar to wind, find out more about alternative [...]

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Climate Change

Implications of the global energy transition on Russia

An analysis of the geopolitical implications of the global energy transition on one of the world’s leading energy-producing countries.

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Climate Change

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report 2020

For over a decade, the UNEP Emissions Gap Report has provided a yearly review of the difference between where greenhouse emissions are predicted [...]

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Mineral Supply Risk

The University Of Queensland – Sustainable Minerals Institute

The Sustainable Minerals Institute is the world's leading research institute dedicated to finding knowledge-based solutions to the sustainability challenges of the minerals industry. [...]

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Interview with Dr Tamara Litvinenko

A short interview with Dr Tamara Litvinenko, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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Mineral Supply Risk

Conversations about mining and society – the mine life cycle

Dr Anthony Hodge unpacks some of the key challenges facing the mining industry. Here he talks about sustainability, the metals supply conundrum, and [...]

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Mineral Supply Risk

Women in the jewellery supply chain in Madagascar

For the past 3 years, Lynda Lawson, a research associate in this gemstone knowledge hub, has been documenting and analyzing the lives of [...]

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Circular Economy

Food for thought: doughnut economics

A healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not grow

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Mineral Supply Risk

Meeting of mines

To conclude the year, the Mineralogical Association of South Africa is hosting a virtual presentation at 13.00 on 3 December 2020, titled “Meeting [...]

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Mineral Supply Risk

United Nations conference on trade and development: commodities at a glance

Rather than merely serving economic means, an enhanced and broader understanding of commodities will be essential to combat climate change.

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Interview with Professor Kazuyo Matsubae

A short interview with Professor Matsubae, professor of Environmental and Energy Economics in the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Tohoku University in [...]

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Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals explained

The Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better [...]

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Sustainable Development Goals

Aggregate confusion: the divergence of ESG ratings

This paper investigates the divergence of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings. Based on data from six prominent rating agencies, the authors decompose [...]

1606221133

Climate Change

The Economist – 20th Century Power

24th Nov 2020

How will clean energy remake geopolitics? Listen to this podcast to hear how The Economist sees this critical area evolving.

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Circular Economy

Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles

Rapid growth in the market for electric vehicles is imperative, to meet global targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to improve air quality [...]

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Circular Economy

Circular economy: preserving materials or products?

This paper draws on material entropy and life cycle thinking to develop the Resource States framework. This framework clarifies and systematises the language [...]

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Demand Drivers

Renewable energy production will exacerbate mining threats to biodiversity

Renewable energy production is necessary to halt climate change and reverse associated biodiversity losses. However, generating the required technologies and infrastructure will drive [...]

1605890841

Climate Change

Energy vs Climate – Build Back Better

20th Nov 2020

On episode 4 of the Energy vs Climate podcast, energy experts David Keith, Sara Hastings-Simon and Ed Whittingham discuss their recent editorial in [...]

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Climate Change

What is your ecological footprint?

Try the Global Footprint Network's Footprint Calculator to find out your Ecological Footprint and personal Earth Overshoot Day.

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Demand Drivers

The magic washing machine

What was the greatest invention of the industrial revolution? Hans Rosling makes the case for the washing machine. With newly designed graphics from [...]

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Circular Economy

The geopolitics of metal supply security – mining, the circular economy and beyond

In this presentation Professor Saleem Ali considers the latest data on supply security based on recent research conducted on resource efficiency, recycling, remanufacturing [...]

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Mineral Supply Risk

The divers of Sewa

A short film on the unique world of artisanal divers searching for diamonds in Sierra Leone. Out of 1.5 million artisanal diamond diggers [...]

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Mineral Supply Risk

Raw talks with Jonas Moberg

For 15 years, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has been the flagship governance initiative for the extractive sector. After a decade leading the [...]

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Climate Change

Green conflict minerals: the fuels of conflict in the transition to a low-carbon economy

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) identifies 23 minerals that will be critical to the development and deployment of solar panels, wind [...]

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Circular Economy

Exploring future copper demand, recycling and associated greenhouse gas emissions in the EU-28

In this paper, the authors explore the possible evolution of four scenarios of copper demand in Europe to 2050.

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Climate Change

Covid-19 has underscored the need to monitor the security of mineral supply for a clean energy future

Clean energy technologies generally require more minerals than their fossil fuel-based counterparts.

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Climate Change

Emissions: world has four times the work or one-third of the time

New synthesis shows what a wasted decade means for the climate pact made in Paris.

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Climate Change

Responsible mineral sourcing for renewable energy

This report explores how the planet can meet the demand for the minerals which will be needed to deliver on the clean energy [...]

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Circular Economy

The capital load of global material footprints

In this recent paper, the authors introduce the capital-augmented material footprint (CAMF) as a new metric for material use that includes all the [...]

1602956231

Mineral Supply Risk

A global-scale data set of mining areas

The area used for mineral extraction is a key indicator for understanding and mitigating the environmental impacts caused by the extractive sector. To [...]

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Climate Change

The green mile

The cost of electrifying the UK's cars

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Circular Economy

Exploration radio – circular economy in mining with Saleem Ali

13th Oct 2020

The prevailing opinion seems to be that mining companies should only focus on mining as a means of creating value - we like [...]

1602601243

Mineral Supply Risk

Sustainable Minerals Institute – The Mineral Governance Podcast

13th Oct 2020

Created to accompany the United Nations Environment Assembly resolution on Mineral Resource Governance, Professor Daniel Franks from The University of Queensland's Sustainable Minerals [...]

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Mineral Supply Risk

Mapping artisanal and small-scale mining to the Sustainable Development Goals

Pact and the University of Delaware’s Mapping Artisanal and Small-scale Mining to the Sustainable Development Goals (ASM-SDG Policy Assessment) is the first report [...]

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Circular Economy

Estimating global copper demand until 2100 with regression and stock dynamics

This paper explores how copper demand might develop until the year 2100 under different socio-economic and technology scenarios.

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Circular Economy

Decoupling economic growth and resource use

Can we achieve economic growth and global prosperity whilst simultaneously reducing – or even reversing – the environmental degradation caused by extracting the [...]

1599570096

Climate Change

The new urgency of climate change

Al Gore talks to Chris Anderson - The coronavirus brought much of the world to a standstill, dropping carbon emissions by five percent. [...]

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Circular Economy

Circular economy strategies for electric vehicle batteries reduce reliance on raw materials

The wide adoption of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles will require increased natural resources for the automotive industry.

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Mineral Supply Risk

One town, four elements: Ytterby

Yttrium, terbium, erbium and ytterbium were all named after one small town on the Stockholm archipelago. But it could have been different, and [...]

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Circular Economy

Completing the picture: how the circular economy tackles climate change

This paper argues that putting in place a circular economy is a fundamental step towards achieving climate targets.

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Demand Drivers

What role for ocean-based renewable energy and deep-seabed minerals in a sustainable future?

This paper analyses the underlying tension between the need for rapid decarbonisation, including that required for scaling up ocean-based renewable energy, and the [...]

1599051195

Climate Change

Minerals for climate action: the mineral intensity of the clean energy transition

An analysis of how the shift to a cleaner energy system could impact mineral demand

1598628176

Demand Drivers

UN Urbanisation Prospects 2018

The Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations has been revising and updating urban and rural [...]

1598618402

Circular Economy

What’s a smartphone made of?

What is in your smartphone and can it be recycled? Kim Preshoff investigates the sustainability of phone production.

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Circular Economy

A clean planet for all: a European strategic long long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate neutral economy

The European Commission sets out its vision for a climate-neutral EU.

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Circular Economy

Bloomberg NEF’s Electric Vehicle Outlook 2020

The Electric Vehicle Outlook is BloombergNEF’s annual long-term forecast of how electrification, shared mobility and autonomous driving will impact road transport from now [...]

1598359652

Climate Change

Urbanization and the evolution of cities across 10,000 years

Today, more than half of all people in the world live in an urban area. By mid-century, this will increase to 70%. But as recently as [...]

1598359036

Climate Change

Transition to a world without oil

We can't create new land and new energy systems at the click of a mouse. And as we sit, exchanging free ideas with [...]

1598283353

Demand Drivers

Raw materials demand for wind and solar PV technologies in the transition towards a decarbonised energy system

This study aims at estimating the future demand for raw materials in wind turbines and solar PV following several decarbonisation scenarios.

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Circular Economy

Mapping anthropogenic mineral generation in China and its implications for a circular economy

In their recent paper, Zeng et al consider anthropogenic mineral generation and its implications for achieving a circular economy.

1598024379

Sustainable Development Goals

Social license to operate and social impact assessment

From tea and coffee to cotton to cobalt, there is growing public interest and scrutiny around the impact, whether that be environmental or [...]

1597918396

Demand Drivers

Material Zoom

Professional short educational documentary about what materials are needed to power the internet infrastructure which allowed humanity to adapt to the great pandemic [...]

1597066814

Circular Economy

A vision for a sustainable battery value chain in 2030: unlocking the full potential to power sustainable development and climate change mitigation

The authors put forward their vision for how batteries can contribute to sustainable development and climate change mitigation over the coming decade.

1596895645

Circular Economy

Greater circularity leads to lower criticality, and other links between criticality and the circular economy

The modern world is reliant on metals, so a secure and stable supply is vital.

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Demand Drivers

Perspectives on cobalt supply through 2030 in the face of changing demand

Lithium-ion battery demand, particularly for electric vehicles, is projected to increase by over 300% throughout the next decade. With these expected increases in [...]

1596812129

Mineral Supply Risk

Global Material Resources Outlook to 2060

In Global Material Resources Outlook to 2060, the OECD examine what the economic drivers of resource demand globally will be during this period, [...]

1596298020

Climate Change

Mineral resource governance in the 21st century: gearing extractive industries towards sustainable development

The UN International Resource Panel (IRP) sets out how we can ensure that international governance of our natural resources becomes intertwined with vital [...]

1596289660

Climate Change

Where should metals for the green transition come from?

Comparing Environmental, Social, and Economic Impacts of Supplying Base Metals from Land Ores and Seafloor Polymetallic Nodules.

1595946933

Mineral Supply Risk

High sensitivity of metal footprint to national GDP in part explained by capital formation

Metals are a key enabler of economic development and human progress, and a requirement for the expansion of clean energy.

1595603227

Climate Change

Global logistics emissions council framework for logistics emissions accounting and reporting

The GLEC Framework is the global method for the calculation and reporting of logistics emissions.

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Mineral Supply Risk

Science sidelined in approval of Australia’s largest coal mine

This analysis provides an overview of key events in the Adani mine’s groundwater approvals.

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Circular Economy

Improving resource efficiency and the circularity of economies for a greener world

This OECD paper outlines several measures required to help improve resource efficiency and stimulate a transition towards a more circular economy.

1593711163

Mineral Supply Risk

Identifying supply risks by mapping the cobalt supply chain

This study analyses the vulnerability of primary cobalt production to supply chain disruptions and evaluates supply risks associated with the increased attention for [...]

1592836541

Circular Economy

Review of critical metal dynamics to 2050 for 48 elements

Critical metals are technologically vital to the functionality of various emerging technologies, yet they have a potentially unstable supply. This condition calls for [...]

1592569118

Climate Change

The carbon cycle is key to understanding climate change – The Economist

Until a few hundred years ago there was a perfect balance of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. Human activity has disrupted that [...]

1590755379

Climate Change

How scientists calculate climate change – The Economist

Climate activists talk a lot about following “the science” around climate change. What actually is the science and how is it calculated?

1578663932

Mineral Supply Risk

Deep-sea mining could transform the globe

The technology opening up the deep ocean is also opening up opportunity, not just to witness the diversity of life but to glimpse [...]

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