Anticipated investment in mining of critical minerals by region in the Net Zero Scenario, 2022-2030

Sources

Bartholomeusz (2022), The world has a big problem in the drive to net zero, The Age, 24 October [https://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/the-world-has-a-big-problem-in-the-drive-to-net-zero-20221024-p5bs8w.html]; S&P Capital (2022), Lithium project pipeline insufficient to meet looming major deficit; USGS (United States Geological Survey) (2022), Mineral Commodity Summaries 2022 [https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/mcs2022]; S&P Global (2022), Iron ore global supply-demand balance, August 2022; S&P Global (2022), Lithium and cobalt global supply-demand balance, January 2022; S&P Global (2022), Copper global supply-demand balance, August 2022; European Commission (2020), Study on the EU’s list of Critical Raw Materials (2020), Factsheets on Critical Raw Materials [https://lecho-circulaire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CRM_2020_Factsheets_critical_Final.pdf]; Eurometaux (2022), Metals for Clean Energy: Pathways to Solving Europe’s Raw Materials Challenge [https://eurometaux.eu/media/jmxf2qm0/metals-for-clean-energy.pdf]; Jervois (2020), Idaho Cobalt Operations: Form 43-101F1 Technical Report Feasibility Study [https://jervoisglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/190348_Idaho_Cobalt_13112020_NI_43_101_Technical_Report-FILED-r1.pdf].

Notes

CSA = Central and South America; ROW = rest of the world. Other Asia Pacific excludes China. Anticipated investments cover four critical minerals (lithium, nickel, copper and cobalt). Neodymium not included because of a lack of data. Cobalt production being mainly a co-product of copper and nickel, the additional capital investment needed to open a copper-cobalt mine compared with a pure copper mine is considered. A range is quoted, considering the range of available cost estimates for diverse feasibility studies of mining projects.