Significance of country-specific context in metal scarcity assessment from a perspective of short-term mining capacity
Significance of country-specific context in metal scarcity assessment from a perspective of short-term mining capacity
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105305
复制
发表时间：
2020-12
影响因子：
13.2
通讯作者：
R. Yokoi;K. Nansai;K. Nansai;Hiroki Hatayama;Masaharu Motoshita
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
R. Yokoi;K. Nansai;K. Nansai;Hiroki Hatayama;Masaharu Motoshita
金属使用的可持续性受到全球需求增加的威胁。采矿能力稀缺的概念与金属的可持续性特别相关；它代表了可获得性和矿山生产之间的不平衡，并由社会经济条件决定。尽管社会经济状况因区域或国家不同而不同，但很少有研究评估这种区域范围内金属开采能力的稀缺性，这未能评估当地可持续性的潜在风险。在此，我们提出了一个具体国家的指标，用于评估金属开采能力的稀缺性，反映了各国国情的差异。我们将我们的方法应用于2000年、2010年和2017年的16种代表性金属。结果表明，我们的国别稀缺性指标对于所考虑的金属来说相差1-3个数量级，这取决于生产国的储量和矿山产量。此外，引入了一个代表高稀缺国家生产集中程度的指标，该指标揭示了铝、稀土、锂和锡对高稀缺国家的依赖程度。为了评估特定需求对威胁当地可持续性的潜在风险的影响，我们定义了矿山生产的严重程度，即由特定国家的矿山产量和稀缺性决定的潜在风险的大小。考虑到各国具体情况对金属稀缺性的分析可以揭示与金属生产有关的当地可持续性的潜在风险，并支持金属用户寻求有效的解决办法以减少潜在风险，而现有的关键程度评估没有考虑到这一点。
The sustainability of metal use is threatened by increasing global demand. The concept of scarcity in mining capacity is of particular relevance to the sustainability of metals; it represents an imbalance between availability and mine production and is determined by socio-economic conditions. Although socio-economic conditions vary by region or country, few studies have assessed the scarcity in mining capacity of metals on such regional scales, which fails to assess potential risks for local sustainability. Here, we propose a country-specific indicator for the assessment of scarcity in mining capacity of metals that reflects differences in national conditions. We apply our methodology to 16 representative metals for 2000, 2010 and 2017. The results demonstrate our indicator of country-specific scarcity varies by 1-3 orders of magnitude for the metals considered, depending on reserves and mine production in producing countries. Furthermore, an indicator that represents the degree of concentrated production in high-scarcity countries is introduced, which reveals the dependency on high-scarcity countries for Al, REE, Li, and Sn. For the assessment of the effects of specific demand on the potential risks of threatening local sustainability, we define the severity of mine production that represents the magnitude of the potential risks determined by both country-specific mine production and scarcity. Analysis of metal scarcity considering country-specific conditions can reveal the potential risks for local sustainability associated with metal production and support metal users to seek effective solutions to reduce the potential risks, which is not considered in existing criticality assessments.