Krister Sundblad and Erik Jonsson (contact: krisun@utu.fi)
High-Tech Metal Mineral Resources have become increasingly important for the global modern industry, not the least regarding “green” or “clean” technology and electronics applications. Most of the high-tech metals (e.g. In, Li, Ta and a majority of the Rare Earth metals) and their host minerals were originally discovered in Europe. Yet, these discoveries have so far not led to any larger-scale resource supply on the world market. Instead, the current industry is severely dependent on such mineral resources from single countries or regions outside of Europe. In order to avoid a future supply-risk situation, the European Union has identified the need for a more diversified global supply, including the possible utilization of intra-European resources. The European bedrock has already proven to be enough variable and fertile to form concentrations of a number of High-Tech Metal Minerals but the question is whether these concentrations also can be sufficiently large to become economically feasible raw material resources. In this session we invite contributions on High-Tech Metal Mineral targets in Europe, within and outside the European Union.
