Elsevier

Resources Policy

Volume 38, Issue 4, December 2013, Pages 435-447
Resources Policy

How to evaluate raw material supply risks—an overview

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2013.06.003Get rights and content

Highlights

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    We compare 15 raw material supply risk evaluation methods in criticality assessments.

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    We analyze supply risk evaluation, including indicator selection and weighting.

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    Indium is used to exemplify data base situation.

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    Indicator selection and weighting is found to be arbitrary.

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    Required data for specific resources is often unreliable or unavailable.

Abstract

Some strategic raw materials do have an extremely unsecure supply situation. Several working groups around the world have made criticality assessments for metallic raw materials to analyze the driving impact factors for this instability. However, the influences on raw material availability are manifold and therefore criticality assessment methods are very heterogeneous. Here we give an overview about the differences and similarities of supply risk evaluation in 15 criticality assessment methods. We take the example of Indium, which has been rated in 60% of these criticality studies, and show which data base is used for supply risk evaluation. Our results show a lack of consensus about which indicators give reliable information for raw material supply risk and how these indicators should be aggregated. We anticipate our essay to be a starting point for more justified indicator selection and weighting in criticality assessments.

Section snippets

Criticality

The term ‘criticality’ was first used in 1939 in context with raw materials. In those days, the American administration decided to build up a stock for 42 raw materials with military relevance. This was enforced by the so called “Critical Material Stockpiling Act” (U.S. National Research Council, 2008). That stockpiling was aiming to ensure independent access to raw materials for a military emergency case. After the end of the Cold War, the geopolitical situation relaxed. Nonetheless, the

Summary and outlook

This research paper is focusing on a relatively new research area called Raw Material Criticality. The scope of criticality assessement methods is to analyze driving factors, which makes a raw material critical from an economic, ecological, social or even ethical perspective. For the target value supply risk, it could be shown which study is applying which set of criteria and how these criteria had been quantified and finally rated. Moreover it has been discussed to which extend the indicators

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Julia Grimm for her valuable help in data preparation and Lars Wietschel for his assistance in proofreading.

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