Metal raw materials come from minerals and recycled parts. Conflict has arisen due to the mining of metals in developing countries. Some metals are scarce, such as the platinum group, and rely on limited regions. Steel is vital but only slightly recycled, while lead is the most commonly recycled metal.
Metal raw materials consist primarily of widespread types of minerals, although metals are increasingly derived from scrap, waste, and recycled parts that are smelted and refined for the metals they contain. Examples of major mineral groups for metal feedstocks include bauxite ore, which is a compound of aluminum hydroxides, and aluminum oxides mined for the production of aluminum, and stibnite ore, a crystalline form of sulfide of antimony, Sb2S3, which is mined to produce pure antimony. Other widely used types of metal raw materials include iron ore used to make steel; various oxidized forms of copper ore such as azurite, malachite, and tennantite; and minerals such as sphalerite from which zinc is derived.
Since the most common types of raw materials for metals as of 2011 have been derived from naturally occurring ores which are usually oxides or mixed compounds of metals found in developing countries, the mining of such metals has often been used as an economic means of fueling the conflict. This has led to government action such as the 2010 US Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to regulate the purchase of commodities from certain countries. Many metal raw materials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, such as wolframite, cassiterite and coltan, are widely used to produce precious metals such as tin, tungsten and gold, which are used in electronics and other industries.
While many metallic raw materials are found throughout the world, others, such as the platinum group of metals, are quite scarce and confined to limited regions such as Russia and South Africa, which together are estimated to contain half of the world’s reserves. The metallic platinum group is important in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and organic chemicals and includes examples such as platinum, palladium and iridium. Some of these important metals such as platinum itself, which is derived solely from the ore sperrylite, have no other mineral source in nature.
Metal production also relies heavily on recycled metal raw materials. A May 2011 United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report on end-of-life recycling rates (EOL-RRs) found that a group of 18 major metals had EOL-RR rates above 50% across the entire world. These included commonly used metals such as zinc, nickel and chromium.
Steel feedstock is one of the most vital metals for a wide range of industries, although steel is generally only recycled at a rate slightly above 50%. The most common recycled metal according to the 2011 UNEP report was lead, accounting for almost 80% of the metal recovered and reused. Other widely recycled metal raw materials tend to be preferred for both their net worth and ubiquitous uses, such as gold and silver for their value in jewelry and electronics, and aluminum and copper for their use in construction and transportation.
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