Minor Metals:
Ready for the Circular Economy
The world’s popula on is growing quickly. People are moving to urban centres. Raw material demand is expected to increase
3‐fold by 2050.
Government and business need to face these challenges head on to ensure a plen ful supply of resources for all; therefore
op misa on is crucial.
Metals will be central to any strategy to make a sustainable future. Minor metals* are used in renewable energy technologies,
electric vehicles and other sustainable technologies‐ please visit www.mmta.co.uk/newsle er/sustainable‐minor‐metals to learn
more.
These metals are o en described by governments as ‘strategic’ or ‘cri cal’ because of their excep onal characteris cs; minor
metals are part of the innova ve solu ons which will ensure a sustainable future. In addi on, steel, nickel, aluminium and otherbase metals also rely on minor metals as alloying elements to give them their mechanical proper es, deformability, corrosion
resistance and other essen al performance characteris cs.
One solu on to the world’s raw material challenges is to develop a circular economy. The circular economy is as a prac cal
method to manage the planet's expanding resource demands.
So what is the Circular Economy?
A circular economy is an alterna ve to a tradi onal linear economy ('take‐make‐dispose') in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract themaximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products andmaterials at the end of each service life. (WRAP UK)
The circular economy aims to eradicate waste—not just from manufacturing
processes, as lean management aspires to do, but systema cally, throughout the life
cycles and uses of products and their components. Indeed, ght component andproduct cycles of use and reuse, aided by product design, help deﬁne the concept of acircular economy and dis nguish it from the linear take–make–dispose economy,
which wastes large amounts of embedded materials, energy, and labour.
(McKinsey & Company)
Explora on and material extrac on costs are rising. This, coupled with growing tensions around geopoli cs and supply risk, arecontribu ng to vola le commodity prices. A circular economy could help stabilise some of these issues by decoupling economic
growth from resource consump on.
Why are we talking about this now?
The European Commission says that the circular economy oﬀers an opportunity to reinvent the economy, making it moresustainable and compe ve, bringing beneﬁts for businesses, industries, and ci zens alike. This new plan would, they believe,
make Europe’s economy cleaner and more compe ve and the Commission is delivering ambi ous measures to cut resource use,
reduce waste and boost recycling. The Commission has recently adopted (December 2015) an ambi ous Circular Economy
Package, which includes revised legisla ve proposals on waste to s mulate Europe's transi on towards this circular economy.

*The term 'minor metals' encompasses a vast array of metals, including tungsten, tanium, cobalt and molybdenum, to name just a few. Tradi onally, minor
metals were those metals not traded on formal exchanges, although cobalt and molybdenum are now traded on the London Metal Exchange along with basemetals. Minor metals have a rela vely low annual produc on volume in comparison to base metals, and very specialist, and o en high technology, applica ons.

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Minor Metals: Ready for the Circular Economy
The Circular Economy Package consists of an EU Ac on Plan for the Circular Economy establishing a concrete and ambi ous
programme, with measures covering the whole cycle: from produc on and consump on to waste management and the market
for secondary raw materials.
The proposed ac ons will contribute to ‘closing the loop’ of product lifecycles through greater recycling and re‐use, and bring
beneﬁts for both the environment and the economy. Within this there will most deﬁnitely be business opportuni es for those able
to demonstrate that their ac vi es support the overall aims of the circular economy.
The most concrete proposal in the revised legisla on is on waste. Clear targets have been set for the reduc on of waste and toestablish an ambi ous and credible long‐term path for waste management and recycling. Key elements of the revised waste
proposal include:
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A common EU target for recycling 65% of municipal waste by 2030;
A common EU target for recycling 75% of packaging waste by 2030;
A binding landﬁll target to reduce landﬁll to maximum of 10% of all waste by 2030;
A ban on landﬁlling of separately collected waste;
Promo on of economic instruments to discourage landﬁlling ;Simpliﬁed and improved deﬁni ons and harmonised calcula on methods for recycling rates throughout the EU;
Concrete measures to promote re‐use and s mulate industrial symbiosis ‐ turning one industry's by‐product into anotherindustry's raw material;
Economic incen ves for producers to put greener products on the market and support recovery and recycling schemes (e.g.
for packaging, ba eries, electric and electronic equipment, vehicles).

What about the Circular Economy beyond Europe?
China has set up CACE, a government‐backed associa on to encourage circular growth, and an increasing number of ini a ves arebeing developed in the US, where the clear business case for the circular economy is having an impact.
Civil society has been the real driver for the circular economy un lrecently. The Ellen MacArthur Founda on, the leading organisa on
behind the circular economy movement, counts companies such as
Philips, Renault and Unilever as their Global Partners, pushing theirbusinesses and supply chains towards the circular economic model.
With such downstream companies championing the transi on to acircular economic model, those within their supply chains will
increasingly need to demonstrate they are complying.

The problem with data…
Minor metals are o en used as alloying elements insteel, nickel, aluminium and others and they are o en
poorly reﬂected in the recycling rate ﬁgures of thesemetals. It is common for base metal recyclers to notinclude the percentage of any alloys in the metals they
process This means that reported recycling rates forminor metals can be much lower than what is recycled inreality.

How do minor metals ﬁt in to the Circular Economy?
Minor metals are ideally suited to this shi in economic model:
Many minor metals have recycling loops of high economic value. Examples where MMTA Members are leaders in their ﬁeld
include:‐Rhenium and precious metal recovery from spent catalysts‐Tantalum recovery from used capacitors‐Indium metal recovery from ITO and spu ering produc on waste‐Tungsten recovery from cemented carbide scrap‐Recovery of molybdenum, tungsten and niobium from used spu ering targets‐Recycling of cobalt and tanium based superalloys

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Metals are inﬁnitely recyclable and can be used again and again
Urban mines contain many high value metals, unlocking a new ‘reserve’

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Minor Metals: Ready for the Circular Economy
The aim of circular economy plans, in par cular for metals, is to implement condi ons across the metals value chain to securecost‐eﬃcient access to secondary raw materials by region. Recycling would be priori sed, with the emphasis on recovery ofvaluable metals from recyclable waste and end‐of‐life products. The an cipated beneﬁt of this would be job crea on andeconomic growth resul ng from support given to the recycling and downstream industries by government. In addi on, recycling
materials lowers environmental impacts and the energy intensity of materials’ supply.
High volume metals, including aluminium, copper, nickel, zinc and lead, already have high recycling rates, but great poten al
remains for increased recycling of other metals, including minor metals and other cri cal raw materials. However, the industry s ll
faces challenges at all stages of the metals value chain, from leakage of waste, to the con nued lack of implementa on ofmeasures to reduce landﬁlling in some regions.
So isn’t the circular economy just another way to describe recycling?
The circular economy is much more than recycling. A linear economy makes, uses and then disposes of materials. The circular
economy looks at all the op ons across the chain to use as few resources as possible in the ﬁrst place, keep resources incircula on for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them while in use, then recover and regenerate products at
the end of service life. This means designing products for longevity with repairability in mind, so that materials can be easily
dismantled and recycled, not to men on the alterna ve business models that encompass trade‐ins, sharing models and service
packages.
What about primary produc on‐won’t we need mining anymore?
Even if 100% of metals used in the past were to be recycled, this would not meet the material requirements of today. This is due
to increased popula on and demand for consumer goods. Also, due to the expected lifespan of metals in some applica ons, suchas construc on, aerospace and automo ve, the metals used here cannot be expected to be recycled for at least 30+ years. There
will con nue to be a demand for primary produc on.

The Minor Metals Trade Associa on (MMTA) has made every eﬀort to ensure that the informa on presented is technicallycorrect. However, MMTA does not represent or warrant the accuracy of the informa on contained in this case study or its
suitability for any general or speciﬁc use. The reader is advised that the material contained herein is for informa on purposes
only; it should not be used or relied upon for any speciﬁc or general applica on without ﬁrst obtaining competent advice.
MMTA, its members, staﬀ and consultants speciﬁcally disclaim any and all responsibility of any kind for loss, damage, or injury
resul ng from the use of the informa on contained in this publica on.

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