Foreword

by Hubert Védrine
French minister of foreign affairs under President Jacques Chirac, and secretary general and diplomatic adviser to French president François Mitterand

IN AN INCISIVE AND TROUBLING ACCOUNT, GUILLAUME PITRON SOUNDS THE alarm on a serious geopolitical problem: the world’s growing reliance on rare metals for its digital development in information and communication technologies. This includes the manufacture of devices such as mobile telephones, not to mention the much-lauded electric and/or hybrid car, which requires twice as many rare metals as the humble internal-combustion engine vehicle.

There is nothing untoward about these thirty or so rare metals bearing perfectly civilised Latin names like ‘promethium’. They are found in minute proportions in more abundant metals, making their extraction and refinement expensive and difficult. The first problem is that most of these resources are in the hands of China — an advantage it is naturally tempted to exploit. Other countries with such underground resources have for various reasons abandoned their mining operations, which largely gives China a global monopoly and Beijing the title of the ‘New Rare Metals Master’.

Pitron illustrates the perils of this dependence with numerous case studies — ranging from super magnets to long-range missiles — where the West has acted inconsistently or entirely without foresight. The solution seems obvious: reopen rare metal production in the United States, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, and even in the ‘dormant mining giant’ of France.

Enter the next predicament: mining these rare minerals is anything but clean! Says Pitron, ‘Green energies and resources harbour a dark secret.’ And he’s quite right: extracting and refining rare metals is highly polluting, and recycling them has proved a disappointment. We are therefore faced with the paradox that the latest and greatest technology (and supposedly the greenest to halt the ecological countdown) relies mostly on ‘dirty’ metals. Thus, information and communication technologies actually produce 50 per cent more greenhouse gases than air transport! It’s an especially vicious circle.

How do we overcome the contradiction?

We need to revive the mining of rare earths and of mineral resources internationally (potentially reviving tensions between governments and mining companies), but in an environmentally sound way, using the latest financing, innovation, and other economic and technological means. According to Pitron, more and more consumers around the world would be willing to foot the bill.

The author ends his thesis on a positive note by giving examples of the ‘sudden wake-up call taking place in the rare metals industry’.

The ecological transition of our economic activities is critical, not just for saving the planet, but for preserving life on the planet — including human life. We can expect hundreds more such challenges to overcome, difficult decisions to be made, scientific breakthroughs to reach, and opinions to support or enlist if we are to accelerate this transition. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.

Through the focus of his investigation, Guillaume Pitron alerts us to an issue that is vital yet inadequately considered.