“Elemental Strategic Metals, a plant that opened in the second half of June this year in Zawiercie, Silesia, is one of the most modern examples globally of so-called urban mining. It will 100% recover materials from recycling,” announces Paweł Jarski, president of Elemental Group (GE). “In this way, it will significantly contribute to the raw material independence of the European Union and thus Poland will play a key role in the circular economy,” added the head of GE.
Michał Zygmunt, CEO of Elemental Strategic Metals (ESM), supplements Paweł Jarski’s opinion: “Critical resources are becoming a significant concept in the global economy. Supply chains for these resources are highly concentrated in a limited number of countries. Demand for these resources will continue to grow, both in relation to global demographic changes and digitalisation, industrialisation, and the growing demand for clean and modern technology.”
The Zawiercie plant recovers as many as eight critical raw materials. The definition of critical raw materials, the most important for global business, has been changing for decades. Until recently, they were oil, gas, and coal. Nowadays, in the era of a geopolitical triad of USA, China, Europe, the attention of magnates increasingly focuses on rare earth metals and platinum group metals. This makes critical resources extremely important in the current international situation. Hence, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, spoke about the “extraordinary and strategic significance of critical raw materials for Europe and all EU member states” at the European Parliament forum (on December 15, 2023).
The European Commission lists 34 elements/critical raw materials in its latest list from March 16, 2023, necessary for the functioning of modern economies. These raw materials can be recovered during recycling. ESM in Zawiercie offers the recovery of 7 such elements on a large industrial scale: palladium, platinum, rhodium, cobalt, lithium, copper, and nickel.
The value of the critical raw material market was $350 billion in 2022, much more than half the value of coal mined worldwide two years ago. The range of modern applications for critical resources is enormous. Approximately 50 types of metals are used for the production of an average class smartphone, many of which are critical resources. Without these resources, there would be no modern devices such as laptops, wind turbines, photovoltaic cells, heat pumps, cables, batteries, modern robots, drones, energy-saving lighting, rockets, and satellites. According to a report by the International Energy Agency, demand for critical resources is currently more than twice as high as five years ago.
Urban mining allows for the extraction of critical resources from electronic waste, used catalysts, lithium-ion batteries and recovers valuable resources in a much more environmentally friendly way than from natural deposits. Classic mining is no longer able to meet the demand for electrical and electronic devices. Significant amounts of strategic raw materials are no longer available in the traditional way. Urban mining currently satisfies about 40% of the demand for critical resources and rare earth metals, and this percentage will grow. The report also points out that over 50 million tons of electrical and electronic waste are generated annually worldwide, and this number is expected to increase to 74 million tons by 2030.
In June 2024, the ESM plant officially opened in Zawiercie with the support of, among others, the EBRD, World Bank and PFR. ESM is expected to become a global leader in urban mining and is one of the most effective city smelters in the world. ESM sources the raw materials for the recovery of critical raw materials and rare earth metals from 77 locations around the globe (including 33 locations in 13 US states). By 2024, this number will reach 100.
List of critical raw materials according to the European Commission:
Antimony, arsenic, bauxite/aluminum, barite, beryl, boron/boranes, fluorite, phosphates, phosphorus, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, helium, cobalt, metallic silicon, lithium, magnesium, manganese, copper, nickel, niobium, PGM (platinum group metals), REE (rare earth elements) heavy, REE light, feldspars, scandium, strontium, tantalum, metallic titanium, vanadium, coking coal, tungsten.
Source: https://managerplus.pl/elemental-strategic-metals-polska-na-mapie-swiatowego-recyklingu-surowcow-krytycznych-31979
