We need governments, companies, and communities worldwide to cooperate if we want to build a more circular and more equitable economy. This applies to all industries, including semiconductors and 3D integration.
Mineral supplies are a crucial issue for our industry. Metals are needed for all aspects of semiconductor manufacturing and the transition to clean energy. The topic came up when Francoise interviewed Jose Fernandez, the Under Secretary of Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment for the U.S. State Department, on her podcast after he spoke at SEMICON West.
Fernandez claimed that to meet electrification goals for 2050, lithium supplies will need to increase 42 times, while manganese and cobalt suppliers will need to increase 25 times over current production levels. That’s millions of tons of critical minerals, and it doesn’t even cover most of the metals needed in our industry. (For more on critical minerals, see the blog post, Critical Minerals and Urban Mining.)
Mining these metals is dirty, dangerous, and energy-intensive. Countries that import metals are responsible for considering the source and supporting more sustainable practices.
Several international organizations are working to improve mining. The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), founded in 2002, has been working primarily out of public view to improve transparency and safety. One-third of global metals and mining companies are members. The list includes Alcoa, Anglo-American, Barrick, Newmont, Rio Tinto, and many less familiar names.
In recent years, representatives from ICMM have been speaking at conferences. They are reaching out to companies that buy metals so that those companies can become familiar with ICMM and better understand the mining industry’s efforts to become more socially and environmentally responsible.
The Mineral Security Partnership (MSP) is a much newer collaboration launched in 2022. Jose Fernandez is one of the US officials involved in the program. Other participating economies include Australia, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, plus the European Commission representing the EU. The MSP focuses on minerals related to clean energy, which overlap with those needed to manufacture and package semiconductor chips.
The MSP is engaged in solving some complex problems. Ideally, their work will answer several key questions:
- How do we diversify the global supply chain to ensure a consistent, reliable supply of critical minerals?
- How do we support countries that hold mineral reserves so they can benefit from those reserves without exploiting or harming their citizens?
- What is the best way to promote environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards throughout the mineral industry?
- How can we increase the supply of feedstock to support the demand for recycled metals and reduce the amount we need to extract from mining?
This effort plans to provide financial support for specific projects that meet internationally recognized ESG guidelines. The scope covers everything from mineral extraction and refining to metals recycling.
It is encouraging to see investment and collaboration. Countries in Africa and South America whose economies rely on mining are participating in MSP meetings. Their involvement is critical to making MSP’s work relevant and ensuring that mining communities get the support they need.
The MSP document Principles for Responsible Critical Mineral Supply Chains states, “The MSP acknowledges and endorses the right of every country to benefit from its own mineral resources, including seeking to move up the value chain, and acknowledges the benefits of good mining governance for the betterment of communities, economics, and the environment.”
This statement sounds good, but it’s still early days for the MSP. Ideally, it will deliver on its promises and support global supply chains to provide critical minerals in a way that minimizes harm to people and the environment. It won’t be easy, but it’s a worthwhile goal.
If you’re wondering what you can do, one step is to educate yourself about issues related to critical minerals. Headlines suggesting that the transition to clean energy will require more metals than the world can produce are overly alarmist (and potentially promoted by those who benefit from business as usual).
That doesn’t mean you don’t need to be concerned about supplies of critical minerals. It is helpful to audit your supply chains to learn more about where your metals are coming from. Tracing the supply chain back to the source is how to discover what mines you are indirectly supporting. You can investigate using recycled metals. Feedstocks are limited today, but if companies work together to support the recycling of a wider variety of metals, the recycling industry can grow.
What are you doing to reconsider your use of critical minerals?
