Critical Metal Mineralogy: Preface to the special issue of Mineralogical Magazine

The phrase ‘critical metals’ has become widely used over the last decade. Critical metals are those for which demand is increasing, largely due to their use in new technologies, but for which there are restrictions to supply. These supply restrictions are normally not due to a natural shortage of these elements, but instead can be attributed principally to a concentration of production in a small number of countries. Markets for many of the critical metals are still small when compared with those for major industrial metals such as copper or lead, and at the time of writing prices for almost all metals are low; as a result it can be difficult to diversify production. A number of reports, books and special issues have been published on the subject (Graedel et al., 2012, EC, 2014, Gunn, 2014, Chakhmouradian et al., 2015, Lusty and Gunn, 2015, Graedel et al., 2015).