Partner Events of EcoBalance 2022
Critical minerals for carbon-neutrality and circular economy(summary report）
Critical minerals, such as rare earths, cobalt, lithium, nickel, copper, and aluminium, are used for advanced
applications, related to renewable energy and generally face supply risks and vulnerability of the supply chain
because of minor and biased occurrences in the world. Therefore, maintaining a circular flow of critical minerals
is expected to achieve a circular economy and sometimes national security.
This event, as a support event of EcoBalance 2022, provided the latest related research, standardization andrulemaking situation about a criticality assessment, traceability system for carbon footprint, and establishedvalue networks.

■Date/ Time: 13：30-16:30 (JST:UMT+9), 3 November, 2022
■Venue:Fukuoka International Congress Center, Fukuoka, Japan■Sponsorship: Circular Economy Association (CEA)
Circularise
International Round Table on Materials Criticality (IRTC)
Mining and Materials Processing Institute of Japan - Committee of Comprehensive
resource use system (MMIJ)
MinviroRare Earth Industry Association (REIA)■Participants: About 80 persons (registration: 101 persons)■Agenda:13:30～13:35

Opening Remark

Vice president, Rare Earth Industry Association/Director, Circular Economy Association/ Chief analyst, Mitsubishi UFJ R&C (MURC)
Kotaro Shimizu
13:35～14:00 Critical Materials, the Circular Economy, and Carbon Neutrality
Professor of Economics and Business and Coulter Foundation Chair in Mineral Economics,
Colorado School of Mines / Deputy Director, Critical Materials Institute (CMI)
Roderick G. Eggert
14:00～15:00 Discussion- Expected circular business ecosystem from the critical minerals’ aspect
Moderator: Guido Sonnemann （Bordeaux University）
Panelists: Roderick Eggert（Colorado School of Mines／CMI）Alessandra Hool（IRTC）
Shinsuke Murakami（The University of Tokyo）
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Keld F. Rasmussen（Grundfos）
Kotaro Shimizu（REIA／CEA／MURC）
15:25～15:45

Critical raw materials and their circular management - an international perspective
International Round Table on Materials Criticality
Alessandra Hool

15:45～16:05

Criticality assessment of mineral resources for the Japanese economy
Chair, Committee of Comprehensive resource use system,
the Mining and Materials Processing Institute of Japan/Professor, Dept. of Tech. Mgnt. for Innovation, Grad. Sch. of Eng., the University of Tokyo
Shinsuke Murakami

16:05～16:25

A Journey Towards Transparency and Sustainability
President, Rare Earth Industry Association/ Grundfos
Badrinath Veluri

16:25～16:30

Closing Remark

Chair, Committee of Comprehensive resource use system,
the Mining and Materials Processing Institute of Japan/Professor, Dept. of Tech. Mgnt. for Innovation, Grad. Sch. of Eng., the University of Tokyo
Shinsuke Murakami

1. Critical Materials, the Circular Economy, and Carbon Neutrality
Professor of Economics and Business and Coulter Foundation Chair in Mineral Economics, Color
ado School of Mines / Deputy Director, Critical Materials InstituteRoderick G. Eggert
A material is deemed “critical” if it hasessential functionality (i. e., it isindispensable), if substitution is difficult,and if it is subject to supply-chain risks. TheUnited States government defines morethan 50 minerals as critical minerals in2022. The list is long because what is criticaldepends on who you are, where you are, andwhen you ask – and most elements are critical to someone. In addition, each2

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material has its own story about the reason why it is critical. For example, somematerials face a lack of supply chain diversity and others face geographic risks.
The global demand for some critical minerals will increase along with the progressof carbon neutrality. For example, the demand for materials for solar applications
and power electronics (Ga, In, Se, Ag, Te, Sn), for magnets and motors (Nd, Pr, Gd,Dy, Tb), for energy storage and batteries (Li, Ni, Co, Mn), for fuel cells andelectrolyzers (platinum group elements, rare earths), and for nuclear (Co, Dy, Gd,Hf, In) are expected to increase. Copper, essential for electrification with no goodsubstitutes, is not defined as a US critical mineral because the United States is asignificant producer of copper and copper’s supply chain is more diverse than thesupply chains of most other minerals on the US list.
“Produce more”, “Waste less” and “Use less” are three fundamental approaches tomanaging critical minerals. A circular economy is an approach that satisfies thethree aspects. Therefore, a circular economy is an important approach to managing
critical minerals.
In an era of growing material demand, recycling of materials in end-of-life products
will struggle to satisfy a significant share of the supply. What determines
recycling’s share of total supply are the rate of final demand growth, average
product lifetime, and percent of available end-of-life scrap that is actually recycled.
These factors should be considered to promote recycling.
The time dimension cannot be ignored in thinking about supply risks and criticality.
In the short to medium term, the lack of diversity in supply leads to supply risks.
The lack of production capacity leads to supply risks in the medium to long term.

2. Discussion- Expected circular business ecosystem from the critical minerals’ aspect
Moderator: Guido Sonnemann （Bordeaux University）
Panelists: Roderick Eggert（Colorado School of Mines／CMI）
Alessandra Hool（IRTC）
Shinsuke Murakami（The University of Tokyo）
Keld F. Rasmussen（Grundfos）
Kotaro Shimizu（REIA／CEA／MURC）

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The relationship between criticality and acircular economy was discussed in the panel
discussion. The panelists argued that recycling
is one of the important approaches to solving
supply risks and sustainability issues. Thepanelists noted that ensuring the amount andquality of recycling is one of the challenges andpolitical measures are needed to promote recycling.
The panelists stressed that criticality could be used as an indicator to prioritize
circular economy activities. The panelists noted that security issues would be astrong driver to promote circular economy activities because manufacturers are moreinterested in supply risks, but appropriate rules such as international standards arenecessary to promote such behaviors from the perspective of sustainability.
The panelists mentioned that the evaluation of the specific features of criticalminerals is needed in the future. Recycling, refurbishing, and reusing are important
actions for electric vehicle’s battery materials because large amounts of materials areincluded per vehicle and the materials can be collected more efficiently. However,recycling some of the electronic materials cannot be pursued because very small
amounts of materials are included per product.
The panelists referred to developing common languages about circularity, enhancing
cost competitiveness (e.g., tax measures), and establishing frameworks andplatforms for information sharing as drivers for the implementation of circular
strategies for critical minerals.
The panelists also referred to difficulties in collecting some end-of-life products, thelack of incentive for recovery, and the cost of using secondary materials as barriers
to the implementation of circular strategies for critical minerals. The panelists
highlighted that the creation of incentives that make circular activities profitable isnecessary.

3. Critical raw materials and their circular management - an international perspective
International Round Table on Materials Criticality
Alessandra Hool4

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Circular economy contributes to mitigating
the criticality of critical raw materials(CRMs). For the implementation of thecircular business models for CRMs, we havecommon challenges such as small amountsof raw material per product, CRMs often not
captured or targeted in circularity metrics,
low value of raw material per product,difficult logistics, lacking standardization, and limited recycling capacity. However,there are some good practices of circular business in the world.
Hitachi group has achieved rare earths recovery from hard disk drives (HDDs). In
this practice, efficient automatic disassembly of HDDs, collection infrastructure, andvertical integration of manufacturing, collection, disassembly, and end-of-life
recycling enables both to secure the supply of critical raw materials and to gain
economic benefits.
H.C. Starck Tungsten has realized tungsten recycling in Germany. Recycling
multiple types of elements in a single plant setup is one of the success factors in thispractice.
Rolls-Royce and General Electric have constructed a system for closed-loop recyclingof rhenium from jet engine turbine blades and lifetime extension of turbines via
repairs and replacement of parts. The success factors of this practice are high-quality
and well-defined scrap properties, innovative repair practices, providing turbines as“product as a service”, and a B2B relationship between product suppliers and product users.
CircuBAT project, which is in progress in Switzerland, aims to construct a system forcircular EV batteries. The drivers of this practice are massive demand increase for
EV batteries, a high value of battery materials, impacts on company reputation, andpolitical attention.

4. Criticality assessment of mineral resources for the Japanese economy
Chair, Committee of Comprehensive resource use system,
the Mining and Materials Processing Institute of Japan/Professor, Dept. of Tech. Mgnt. for Innovation, Grad. Sch. of Eng., the University of Tokyo
Shinsuke Murakami5

Japan has a really limited domestic supply ofmetal ores and the Japanese economy depends
on manufacturing industries. Therefore,securing a stable supply of materials for theindustries has been essential for Japan. The
Japanese government defines 31 elements as“rare metals” and promotes recycling them in
the Japanese resource policy. The criticality
assessments in terms of supply risks and economic importance have been conductedin Japan to decide the minerals to stockpile and where to put the research anddevelopment funds.
The Japanese government published “Circular Economy Vision” in 2020 andpromoted activities for the circular economy. The government has also tried toachieve carbon neutrality. Recycling will contribute to reducing greenhouse gases(GHGs) in the material industry in the long run. However, recycling can sometimes
increase GHGs emissions, which is called a backfire.
In Japan, we cannot supply 100% of our inputs from domestic scraps when we
promote recycling. Japan will have to import scraps to promote recycling in the future.
We, however, will face the challenge with scope 3 of the carbon footprint calculation
for imported scrap recycling.
A council of the Japanese government has proposed the concept of “ResourceAutonomous Economy” as one of its future goals of economic policy. The backgroundconcerns are increasing supply risks, a strong emphasis on national security, andbuilding a more resilient supply structure. Circular economy is regarded as one of
the approaches to achieving “Resource Autonomous Economy”. In suchcircumstances, we assess the criticality, including more downstream materials for
manufacturing and other industries.

5. A Journey Towards Transparency and Sustainability
President, Rare Earth Industry Association (REIA)/ Grundfos
Badrinath Veluri

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The demand for rare earths will increase in
the future and the rare earths industry needs
to construct a transparent and sustainablevalue chain to address the ESG disclosure.
However, the current rare earths value chain
has big problems, which are the lack oftransparency and volatility. The lack ofstandards and methodologies in the rareearths industry causes these problems. For example, evaluating the carbon footprintof rare earths products is difficult in transparency. It causes unclear or ambiguous
definitions and quantification methodologies throughout the value chain, noframework and no system definition for the collection of data and modeling, nofactual data, risk of data tempering or manipulation, and insufficient collaborationand consensus within the industry.
The Rare Earth Industry Association (REIA) works on activities to construct atransparent and sustainable value chain. We are developing common languages,
standards and guidelines, data security and protocol, transparency systems, methods
for quantification of sustainability, and traceability systems.
We, REIA, are supporting CsyARES which is a framework to certify thesustainability of rare earths products. This framework focuses on the environmental
footprint. We are also making the product category rules (PCR) for rare earth
products. In addition, we are developing a digital twin system for ensuring
traceability and enabling data analytics throughout the value chain.

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