SummaryThis study provides a global substance flow analysis for gallium (Ga), germanium (Ge), and indium (In) for 2011, quantifying the amount of metal lost during extraction, beneficiation/smelting/refining, manufacturing of intermediate products, and the amount embodied in end-use products. Thus far, studies illustrating their cradle to end-use life cycle on a global scale are either missing or outdated, and thus opportunities to increase their supply remain unknown and/or not quantified. The results illustrate the losses and inefficiencies stages, thereby identifying potential additional supply by process improvement, recovery, and recycling. Results show that there are significant opportunities to meet future demand of Ga and Ge by concentrating recovery efforts in the extraction and beneficiation/smelting/refining stages. Further, 1.4% Ga, 0.7% Ge, and 54% In of the theoretical available amount in the attractor ores are extracted to meet the primary refined demand in 2011. Of the 9,065 tonnes (t) of Ga embodied in the Bayer liquor (from aluminum production), only 263 t are refined. This is owing to low capacities of Ga refining, combined with a refining efficiency of 60%. Ge presents a similar case for the same reasons, in which only 43 t of Ge of the 7,636 t of Ge available from zinc leach residue are refined. Meeting future In demand, on the other hand, will require greater efforts in increasing end-of-life recycling. Process efficiencies for Ga (46%), Ge (56%), and In (78%) demonstrate further potential. We quantify the flows into use by distinguishing among dissipative and nondissipative end uses, as well as the recyclable fraction for each metal for 2011. Keywords:criticality industrial ecology metal demand scarce metals sustainable metal management waste Supporting information is available on the JIE Web site

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The demand for lithium has increased significantly during the last decade as it has become key for the development of industrial products, especially batteries for electronic devices and electric vehicles. This article reviews sources, extraction and production, uses, and recovery and recycling, all of which are important aspects when evaluating lithium as a key resource. First, it describes the estimated reserves and lithium production from brine and pegmatites, including the material and energy requirements. Then, it continues with a description about the current uses of lithium focusing on its application in batteries and concludes with a description of the opportunities for recovery and recycling and the future demand forecast. The article concludes that the demand of lithium for electronic vehicles will increase from 30% to almost 60% by 2020. Thus, in the next years, the recovery and recycling of lithium from batteries is decisive to ensure the long-term viability of the metal.

A number of metals that are now important to the electronic industry (and others) will become much more important in the future if current trends in technology continue. Most of these metals are byproducts (or hitch-hikers) of a small number of important industrial metals (attractors). By definition, the metals in the hitch-hiker group are not mined by themselves, and thus their production is limited by the demand for the major attractors. This article presents a material flow analysis (MFA) of the complex inter-relationships between these groups of metals. First, it surveys the main sources of geologically scarce (byproduct) metals currently considered critical by one or other of several recent studies. This is followed by a detailed survey of their major functions and the quantities contained in intermediate and end-products. The purpose is to identify the sectors and products where those metals are used and stocked and thus potentially available for future recycling. It concludes with a discussion of the limitations of possible substitution and barriers to recycling.

In the last few decades, progress in electronics, especially, has resulted in important new uses for a number of geologically rare metals, some of which were mere curiosities in the past. Most of them are not mined for their own sake (gold, the platinum group metals and the rare Earth elements are exceptions) but are found mainly in the ores of the major industrial metals, such as aluminium, copper, zinc and nickel. We call these major metals ‘attractors’ and the rare accompanying metals ‘hitch-hikers’. The key implication is that rising prices do not necessarily call forth greater output because that would normally require greater output of the attractor metal. We trace the geological relationships and the functional uses of these metals. Some of these metals appear to be irreplaceable in the sense that there are no known substitutes for them in their current functional uses. Recycling is going to be increasingly important, notwithstanding a number of barriers.