The Geological Survey of America (USGS) has published the final list of the 2022 critical minerals required for the socio-economic prosperity of that country.
USGS was established on 3rd March 1879. It has a budget of US$ 1.7 billion (2023 Financial Year) and has approximately 8,670 employees.
The final list shown below is based on the following demands:
(i) The 4th Industrial Revolution. The 4IR is driven by availability of reliable and unequivocal abundant DATA which are obligatory for accelerated innovations, market strategies, new products, new services and their monetizations.
(ii) The Third Industrial Revolution. The 3IR which began in the late 1900s is still going on and is intermingling with the 4IR. It is characterized by wide-spread DIGITIZATION and AUTOMATION. Computers, internets, electronics and nuclear energy are a part of the salient characteristics of the 3IR.
(iii) some examples of 4IR and 3IR commodities are given below the list of the 50 critical minerals of USA
The list of critical minerals
*The 2022 final list of critical minerals presented by USGS is as follows: aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium, bismuth, cerium, cesium, chromium, cobalt, dysprosium, erbium, europium, fluorspar, gadolinium, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, holmium, indium, iridium, lanthanum, lithium, lutetium, magnesium, manganese, neodymium, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, praseodymium, rhodium, rubidium, ruthenium, samarium, scandium, tantalum, tellurium, terbium, thulium, tin, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, ytterbium, yttrium, zinc, and zirconium.
EXAMPLES:
(i) Manufacture of electric-vehicle batteries
Minerals required for the manufacture of electric-vehicles' (EVs) batteries, include, lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese, and graphite
(ii) Manufacture of solar panels
Minerals required for the manufacture of solar panels include, cadmium telluride, cobalt, manganese, gallium, indium, copper, selenium, arsenic and germanium.
*pure arsenic is used to produce gallium-arsenide semiconductors for solar cells. In 2018, USA imported all the required arsenic.
(iii) Manufacture of wind turbines
Minerals required for the manufacture of the wind turbines include, iron, cobalt, lithium, copper, nickel, aluminium, manganese, titanium, graphite, neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium.
(iv) Manufacture of materials required by the aerospace industry
The list is very long. One example to cite here is the importance of TITANIUM.
Titanium is needed in spacecraft because of its strength. It is as strong as steel but is 45% lighter than steel. It is used to make very strong alloys that can withstand the extreme temperatures of space. Thus, it is alloyed with iron, molybdenum and aluminium for the manufacture of spacecraft facilities.
The world is searching for minerals required in the 3IR and 4IR, including materials required in the energies for green economies, i.e. manufacture of solar panels and wind turbines.
Australia is on the race and says the following insofar as its critical minerals are concerned:
*Australia’s resources of critical minerals like antimony, cobalt, lithium, manganese ore, niobium, tungsten and vanadium, rank in the top 5 globally.
*Australia is the world’s top producer of lithium, rutile and the second largest producer of zircon and rare earth elements.
*Australia has the world’s largest resources of rutile (titanium), zircon (zirconium) and tantalum.
*Australia has potential for more undiscovered minerals. Well-established mining regions cover just 20% of Australia. The remaining 80% is largely under-explored.
The material demands for the 3IR and the 4IR, including demands for renewable energies' facilities, have to invigorate the competitiveness of Africa's geological surveys in order to bring the continent (Africa) into this prosperity race.
Contribution by:
Sospeter Muhongo
*Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society of America (est.1888)
*Former Vice President of the Commission of the Geological Map of the World (CGMW)
Date:
Saturday, 2.7.2022
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