BRUSSELS, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- The European Union is trying to prevent a potential mineral resource crisis by identifying and tapping new reserves, an EU strategy paper reveals.
The paper, drafted by EU experts over the past two years, is to be unveiled by Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani next week in the European Parliament. German news Web site Spiegel Online says it obtained the latest draft version.
It reveals concerns that European industries could be crippled by a shortage in natural resources such as high-end minerals and rare earths.
To counter that threat, the EU wants to create incentives to mine more resources, support scientists to locate new finds in Europe and exploit industry and household waste, much of which contains significant resources, Spiegel Online cites the strategy paper as saying.
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U.N. figures indicate, for example, that 41 cell phones contain the same amount of gold as 1 ton of gold ore. Brussels wants to increasingly recycle the continent's electronic trash to keep some of the resources in the value chain.
The commission aims to fund geological research projects to unearth new reserves at home and plans to approach foreign governments with resources -- among them Canada, India and nations in Latin America and Africa -- to diversify imports.
Brussels wants to reduce dependency on China, the main supplier of rare earth elements, or REEs, used in high-end products such as solar panels, wind turbines and hybrid cars.
The market for REEs -- also needed for defense industry products such as missiles and radar systems -- has tripled over the past decade. Experts say the market will further grow, from 125,000 tons produced in 2010 to 200,000 tons in 2014. That will also increase competition over supplies.
China shocked Western industry in July by announcing it would cut export quotas for REEs by 72 percent for the second half of 2010.
China has a quickly growing green technology industry and its solar panels and wind turbines are already competing with products from Europe and the United States, so it increasingly needs the REEs itself.
The situation is similarly worrisome with lithium, mined in Chile, Argentina and China and sold by only a handful of companies.
Bolivia recently discovered that one of its decommissioned salt mines harbored giant reserves of lithium and is using this find to attract huge foreign investments. South Korea has already bought into the mine, and China, France and Japan are trying to grab a piece of the pie.
