A recap of the IRTC Conference

"What is criticality? It depends who you ask, where you ask, and when you ask."

The International Round Table on Materials Criticality (IRTC) Conference 2023 in Lille, France, February 15-17 2023, was a great event at the right time, bringing together industry, policymakers, and academics to exchange views about minerals criticality and creating a resilient and sustainable future.

First of all, many thanks to the conference organizers, Alessandra Hool , Dieuwertje Schrijvers , Luis A. Tercero Espinoza , Evelyne Huerlimann, Maike van Delft , and the rest of the team. The conference was big enough to have diversity in views and interests, yet small enough to be informal and interactive. The stakes are high and views often wide apart, making for some great and necessary discussions around critical minerals.

Top of mind for many people in the field is the upcoming EU Critical Raw Materials Act , around mid-March 2023. The keynote panel on criticality with Rod Eggert , Corina Hebestreit , and Kotaro Shimizu, moderated by Luis A. Tercero Espinoza , highlighted some of the tensions around mineral criticality and the consequences for society. We are clearly in a tug of war between sustainability, autonomy, and protectionism. Criticality is not a list and we are mostly not dependent on elements, rather on alloys and compounds that change and shift as our economies and understanding of sustainability changes. Constanze Veeh of European Commission's DG GROW presented an overview of the methodologies, thinking, and objectives around the Critical Raw Materials Act. The main objectives are strengthening the EU value chain, monitoring and mitigating risk, sustainable value chains, minerals governance, and signaling priority needs to the market. Especially the latter two came up often in other discussions. We need stability in policy and consistent signaling and steering of markets in the EU to remain competitive.

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Some of the highlights include:

• On the first day the opening panel on the geopolitics of critical raw materials many of the challenges on both the supply and demand side were discussed. We must be careful not to get carried away by relatively small deposits in Europe and see these as the solution we have been waiting for. We may be able to leverage scale and lift people out of poverty by developing projects in other countries using good minerals diplomacy. We also need to invest in building capacity for minerals processing in Europe. This goes for mining, minerals, metallurgy, and certainly also the know-how in these areas. In our past and current hurry we have overlooked social and environmental issues. These unaddressed issues are now blocking the energy transition. Know-how and better engagement can help build trust and create buy-in in our communities.
• Alberto Prina Cerai 's talk on a new approach to assessing minerals criticality: Sources (or Geographies) of Control. The Sources of Control framework provides insights in who controls what, how power structures impact supply chain risk. Asset ownership is often difficult to ascertain, but transparency can help security of supply as well as sustainability.
• In light of the ongoing Russian invasion in Ukraine, Magnus Ericsson gave an excellent reflection on geopolitical and competitive threats to Europe. There are opportunities, especially in the Nordics, but the need for accurate minerals intelligence at European level is more essential than ever. The role of other geopolitical players in mining and minerals processing must be carefully monitored and sanctions must extend to metals as well.
• In order to practically use criticality models we need to understand what materials are where in the resource cycle. This is particularly important for efficient secondary raw materials use and circularity. Patrick W?ger presented the FutuRaM project , where the UNFC framework is applied to assess the socio-economic viability and technical feasibility of materials recovery from recycling streams. Consistent and standardized classification is crucial for classification of secondary raw materials and thereby optimizing the most efficient use and timing in urban mining.
• The materials in our stocks and flows live on different timelines and the resulting dynamics in supply chains can be a challenge for industry and policymakers. Anthony Ku highlighted that the Critical Raw Materials list can provide a helpful lens and should be used as a conversation starter, rather than a point blank solution. Policy can be seen as favorable or not, but at least it must be consistent and stable to provide the right business climate and support competitiveness.

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The many conversations, panels, and presentations did highlight the gap between industry, academia, and policymakers. Conferences like the IRTC are essential to bridge this gap. At the same time, we should not pat ourselves on the back too much. Gaps are still big, in particular in terms of how decisions are made in industrial practice, the role of finance, and constructive geopolitical vigilance in practice. I look forward to IRTC 2024, to be hosted by gian andrea blengini and his group in beautiful Torino, Italy, 21-23 February 2024!