Which materials are "critical" and which are "strategic"?

• Autores: Industrial Minerals
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 578, 2015 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Diciembre)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • According to the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (1975), the distinction between "critical" ("indispensable for the weathering, solution, or overcoming of a crisis") and "strategic" ("required for the conduct of war materials, or necessary to, or important in, the initiation, conduct, or completion of strategic plan") may be seen as subtle or non-existent. These definitions are more or less in line with current European use (e.g., European Commission (EC), 2011 and 2014a), where "critical" materials are considered to be of high economic or trade importance, whereas "strategic" materials are those essential to a country's defence. In North America, Ishee et al. (2013), define a mineral as "critical" if it is essential to a vital sector of the US economy and as "strategic" if it is "important to the nation's economy, particularly for defence issues; does not have many replacements; and primarily comes from foreign countries". However, the same publication acknowledges that US government-wide definitions do not exist. Similar to government publications, the distinction between the terms "critical" and "strategic" is largely lost in scientific and technical publications, trade journals and newspapers.

    The lack of consistency in use of the terms "critical" and "strategic" leads to misunderstandings, miscommunications and potentially misrepresentations. Which materials are considered critical depends to a large extent on the priorities and objectives of the organisation or country that commissions the study. Therefore, if the terms "critical" and "strategic" are used, they should be clearly defined and should not be applied out of context. The lists of critical and strategic materials produced by the EC (2011 and 2014), the US DoD (2013) and the US DoE (2011) differ significantly and illustrate this point. The longest list of critical materials comes from the EC (2014), which considered risks to overall economy and was broad in focus. The shortest list comes from the highly focused study of the US DoE, which considered only the supply risks for materials essential to develop clean air technologies. Lists of critical materials change with time because of breakthroughs in technology, political instabilities in major producing countries, environmental pressures and discovery, development, or exhaustion of resources.