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UNECE Press Conference - Critical Minerals: myths and realities 23APR2026

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23-04-2026

Press Conferences , Edited News | UNECE

UNECE Press Conference - Critical Minerals: myths and realities

ENG FRA

Shotlist Story

STORY: Critical minerals crunch - UNECE

TRT: 2’59”

SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH, NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9

DATELINE: 23 APRIL 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

SHOTLIST

Speaker:

Dario Liguti, Director, Sustainable Energy Division, UNECE

Exterior wide shot, United Nations flag flying.
Wide shot of panel at press briefing.
SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH): Dario Liguti, Director, Sustainable Energy Division, UNECE: “The impact of the Gulf War, it is not only is in the energy market, it's been impacting as well some sub-products coming from oil, and you mentioned sulphur correctly, but helium as well, and then naphtha, which are byproducts of the oil refining and are used in different processes.”
Medium-wide, podium speakers, TV screen showing speaker.
SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH): Dario Liguti, Director, Sustainable Energy Division, UNECE: “If the situation – if the conflict situation - continues, the shortages will become evident and will force industries to lower their production of certain technologies, you know, and particularly critical minerals for renewable energy equipment, for example, digital technologies, for that purpose as well. And therefore over time, that will have an increasing impact on prices first of this equipment and then secondly on the availability of that equipment if the conflict continues.”
Wide, podium speakers, journalists.
SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH): Dario Liguti, Director, Sustainable Energy Division, UNECE: “The first reaction besides of course the increase in prices will be industries lowering their use and therefore lowering their production of whether it's solar panels, whether it's magnets, whether it's batteries, et cetera, going forward.”
Wide, Press room, participants.
SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH): Dario Liguti, Director, Sustainable Energy Division, UNECE: “What I can tell you is there is a drive from many Member States around the world to secure those minerals, and we will see increasingly Member States building strategic stocks of those minerals to avoid going into the future or facing into the future this sort of situation.”
Wide shot of panel, photographer.
SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH): Dario Liguti, Director, Sustainable Energy Division, UNECE: “So far, the situation is being felt in some regional markets, particularly in South Asia and Southeast Asia, where there is a lot of refining and processing going on of these initial commodities. But over time, the geographical scope will become larger.”
Wide, Press room, screens showing speaker.
SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH): Dario Liguti, Director, Sustainable Energy Division, UNECE: “So you can see how a crisis which is fundamentally focused on the old traditional fossil fuels sector, how that that impacts as well the new energy, the new renewable energy, and the transition that we have been undertaking and we actually need to accelerate, as you know, as we are falling behind in the Paris 2030 targets”.
Medium, photographer
Medium, journalist.
Medium, journalist.

Middle East war: After oil and gas crunch, concerns grow over vital raw minerals

The shipping crisis in the Strait of Hormuz caused by war in the Middle East has exposed a new threat: a looming shortage of strategic minerals that drive economies all over the world - and a race by countries to obtain them.

Until war erupted on 28 February with the Israeli-US bombing of Iran and counterstrikes across Gulf States, a wide range of key minerals and related products was available, according to the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

But as the conflict goes on, the pressure has increased to obtain these same raw materials, to ensure the continuing production of everything from semiconductors to solar panels.

The result has been higher prices on commodities markets and a potential pivot to new production sites where there’s less geopolitical uncertainty.

“The impact of the Gulf War, it is not only in the energy market, it's been impacting some sub-products coming from oil” such as sulphur, helium and naphtha - said Dario Liguti, Director of UNECE’s Sustainable Energy Division. All are byproducts of oil refining and used in a wide range of manufacturing applications, from fertilizers to insecticides, plastics and matches, along with cooling and semiconductor production. Naptha is another byproduct of oil refining and a key building block of the chemicals industry.

“The first reaction besides of course the increase in prices will be industries lowering their use and therefore lowering their production…whether it's solar panels, whether it's magnets, whether it's batteries, et cetera, going forward,” Mr. Liguti maintained.

Before the war, a full 30 per cent of the world's production of sulphur - which is used in metals processing - transited through the Strait of Hormuz. But that was when some 140 ships transited the crucial trade waterway. Today, shipping is at a virtual standstill, following attacks on vessels and an ongoing stand-off between Iran and the US over use of the strait.

If the conflict situation continues, shortages in key minerals “will become evident”, the UNECE official continued, forcing industry “to lower their production” of critical minerals used in renewable energy equipment and digital technology. “Therefore over time, that will have an increasing impact on prices first…and then secondly on the availability of that equipment.”

Today, industries that relied on supplies from the Strait of Hormuz “are using their existing stocks and they're using the reserves and they're ramping up production elsewhere”, Mr. Liguti said.

He highlighted a “drive from many Member States around the world to secure those minerals” which will result in countries increasingly building “strategic stocks…to avoid a similar disruption in future.

“So far, the situation is being felt in some regional markets, particularly in South Asia and Southeast Asia, where there is a lot of refining and processing going on of these initial commodities. But over time, the geographical scope will become larger.”

In addition to the massive human cost of the war, the UNECE official noted how the oil and natural gas crisis also threatens to undermine the global shift to green energy sources.

“You can see how a crisis which is fundamentally focused on the on the old traditional fossil fuels sector, how that that impacts as well the new energy, the new renewable energy, and the transition that we have been undertaking and we actually need to accelerate, as you know, as we are falling behind in the Paris 2030 targets”.

ends

Teleprompter

Good morning, everybody.

Thank you for joining us today for this press conference on critical raw materials, a very topical issue.

Whether we use our mobile phones or laptops, whether we sit down in a car, use public transport, use energy, new energy, renewable energy facilities we are using, whether we know it or not, critical raw materials and the demand for those will be is expected to expansionary grow in the years to come.

There's many misunderstandings about those and subsets of those.

And this is precisely why we've set up this press conference today with Dario Liguti, Director of UNE CS Sustainable Energy Division, who will try to dissipate some of those and comment on what is the UNEC and also more globally the UN system as a family doing on this matter.

We'll start with his remarks and of as usual, the floor will be open to your questions in the room and online after his introductory remarks.

Without further ado, I'll give the floor to dial.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning, good morning to all of you.

And so we're meeting at the at the topical moment, as you know in terms of the energy markets, but and there's been a lot of press coverage and attention from many international organisations, including UN on the situation around energy resources.

Today we wanted us, as John said, have a look at the critical minerals, which are are are very important as well for the energy markets and we'll get into it in a minute.

So let me say first of all that we are not running out of minerals in geological terms.

So overall there are plenty of minerals out there, but there are other issues such as conflict situations, export controls and the high concentration of those supply chains.

We are actually make these minerals critical.

[Other language spoken]

So what are critical minerals?

These are minerals which are have a play a fundamental role in in certain technologies such as renewable energy equipment, digital, digital technologies, defence technologies.

And therefore they cannot be easily substitutable when producing the equipment in these in these sectors.

What why are they considered critical?

Critical because their production and what I mean by production includes extraction and or refining and processing is highly concentrated in few countries.

[Other language spoken]

For example, cobalt which plays a very important role in magnets.

For example, he's 73% of the world supply is mine in the DRC in the Democratic Republic of Congo or natural graphite, which is very important.

Again in the renewable energy technologies it's it's it's refining is 82% concentrated in China or red Earth for the same matter, for example, 69%.

So we face a situation where many of these minerals, not all, but many of these minerals are either extracted or refined and processed in few countries, which brings to a critical issue.

If you have problems with the supply chains in these countries or in the transport in the, in the, in the, in, in the transportation of these minerals across across the world.

The third issue around critical minerals is its demand.

I mean, these minerals have been around for for or they've been used in technologies for many decades.

The only difference between the past is the right now is we need to scale up those technologies where there's renewable energy equipment, where there is digital technologies or as you know, unfortunately defence technologies massively to face the the needs that that are growing.

And for example, let me give you an example.

For example, we for lithium, it is projected that it's demand will grow will grow fivefold between today and 2040.

Lithium is, is a major component in today's batteries technologies, particularly for electrical vehicles.

Graphite which is just mentioned before, it's, it's demand will need to double.

But other minerals as well which are not as critical as as I might say for example like copper isn't very important one.

But cobalt as I said, it's demand will will grow by 50 to 60%.

So, and that demand is taking place now as we need to embrace the energy transition, scale up the energy transition.

And as the world faces growing needs for digital technologies, particularly with the development of AI and data centres and artificial intelligence and data centres, the demand for these minerals is coming, is being up front loaded if you want.

And what and how, what's happening with the supply?

They become critical because the supply does not move as fast as demand.

If you consider that typically takes on average around 16 years to open a mine, to get all the processes done or to open properly.

Of course a mine, you see the time difference between the demand, which is growing now and the potential supply and the supplied which will come on board on board later on.

Let me say that again, these minerals are widespread in forms of deposits or reserves around the world, but the current extraction and uses of these minerals is is highly concentrated in in the future it will become more available, but because of the the time it takes to open minds properly, you have a mismatch in time for a very long period of time in terms of supply and demand.

Many countries the definition of critical minerals depends on on countries.

So several countries have different lists of critical minerals.

The UN doesn't have definition, an official definition of mineral, although we look at the criticality of certain minerals not only from the perspective of the supply, but as well as the perspective of what it takes for those minerals to be extracted.

Of course, you know, such as the mining activities are have a deep impact on on environment and on social, on the on the indigenous people or the people living around where the mines are exploited.

And therefore the criticality is not only about the supply and demand, as I mentioned before, but as well as what it takes for these minerals to be extracted sustainably.

What is the necessary use of water to be used and energy used for these minerals extraction?

And a very important point that is becoming particularly acute right now with the crisis in the Middle East, which has an impact on diesel, which is a major energy source for mining operations, or the availability, for example, of sulphur, which is a byproduct of oil refining, which is used in many metallurgical processes and in many refining processes of critical minerals.

So you can see how a crisis which is fundamentally focused on the old traditional on the old traditional fossil fuels sector, how that that impact as well the new, the new energy, the new the renewal of energy and the transition that we are that we have been undertaking.

And we actually need to accelerate as you know, as we are falling behind in the, in the, in the Paris 2030 targets achievement.

So let me let me come back to the point around the, around the, the, the criticality and the sustainability of these issues of, of these, of these minerals.

As I said, some of them are critical for the reasons that I mentioned before.

And then obviously it's, it's the exploitation of these minerals because of the huge impact that it has on the, on the environment and the, and the populations around those mines.

It is a very complex process to open a mine sustainably and to do mining operations.

Mining has a, has a, a bad reputation because of issues that happened in the past and that we at UNICE have been working for many years with mining companies, with member states, with all of the stakeholders and regional organisations in making sure that mining becomes more sustainable over time.

Because of the needs the, the that, that, that are needed for the energy transition and for the other technologies that I mentioned before.

And, and the, the work that we've been carrying on is basically identifying and having a holistic approach towards the mining activities, but refining and, and processing as well in a circular perspective.

So mining has been and of most of the of our industrial processes are linear from extraction to processes to use to, to to waste.

We believe and and this is very true, that for example, a waste tailings from from mining operations are a deep source rich source of existing minerals.

And so the idea is to create around the mining industry a circular economy perspective whereby nothing goes wasted, introducing elements such as environmental and social considerations and circularity elements.

For that for many years, with the support of a group of experts, a very large group of experts globally, representing globally stakeholders around the world, we developed the United Nations framework classification for resources is acronym for short is UNFC, which is a classification methodology for reserves for projects in the mining industry, whether it is extraction, whether it is processing or refining that takes into consideration all of the aspects that I mentioned before.

This is unique in the world.

There are no, there are many mining methodologies or or or mining classification methodologies that are used by stock exchanges, for example, that are used by Member States for as well assessing the potential reserves and the feasibility of the reserves.

However, the UNFC is the only one that takes into consideration not only economic and financial perspectives.

You know, how economically viable and how financial, financially feasible is a mining operation or a processing operation, but as well what is its environmental impact, what is its social impact and how we can mitigate those aspects that allows in, in.

Moreover, it's it's a classification method that can be applied to every mineral, not just critical minerals, but as well to energy resources and can be utilised across geographies, across jurisdictions.

And this allows to compare different projects in different countries, all projects in the same country, but different commodities so that stakeholders, policymakers, the private sector, investors, the capital markets can decide, can have a holistic view of that project.

Taking into all consideration what is the what is the, what are the characteristics of those projects and what needs to be done to make sure that that project can actually move forward and become real.

And at the same time, you can compare that across different opportunities.

And this is the strength of UNFC.

And that is the reason why it has been adopted by the EU through the EU Raw Materials Act as its classification methodology in its drive to become more self, more self independent in its, in its supply of clean of critical energy transition minerals.

But it has been adopted as well by other by other member states across the world and is increasingly being adopted by many countries.

And those countries who are not adopting UNFC are their are their legal standard.

They are embracing what we call the bridging documents, which is the, which, which are is is like a translator.

It's, it would translate UNFC or their national standards into UNFC.

So you can create a globally comparable data set on minerals and have more transparency and then more accountability as well in a sector which is traditionally being opaque and and not very rich in in publicly available data.

Once you have and this is one of the first inputs if you want the first area of work of the United Nations across the world, particularly the Economic Commission for Europe, which was when working with member States and other UN partners across the world in disseminating and supporting the adoption of UNFC.

The second one is, is once you have taken the decision to invest, whether it is in extraction, processing, refining or recycling for for that matter, is how do you do that?

[Other language spoken]

And for that, we've been working for many years on the drafting of the United Nations resource management system.

UNRMS goes for short, which is actually a toolkit is actually a guideline to help investors to have project sponsors or member states or local communities as well to once you have understood what is the situation, how you can actually implement, take action to mitigate environmental impact, to mitigate the social, what you need to to get social acceptance for that, for that operation in that.

So they go together.

So you have a classification methodology and then you have, let's say, a project management methodology to to support this, the development or the sustainable development of these resources which are extremely necessary.

As I mentioned, I will probably stop there, John, if you agree and then maybe ask for any questions or any other aspects that you would like to go deeper.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Daria.

For this introductory remarks.

[Other language spoken]

We had in our previous discussions with some of you in the past days got some indications that you had several questions, so now is the time to ask them.

I open the floor to the we'll start first with the ones in the room and then we'll move on to colleagues attending online.

So would you mind switching on the mic and introducing yourself, please?

[Other language spoken]

Thanks for this presentation.

My name is Paula Dubois, I'm with Geneva Solutions.

So I just wanted to know regarding the list, the lists of critical minerals, there are multiple lists.

And I'm just wondering if you could just explain, you know, why there are some minerals on certain lists, Some lists are a lot longer than others.

And then when it comes to these, these tools that you mentioned, I was wondering if you could explain how they're being adopted in reality on the ground.

And especially now that there's, you know, this race for critical minerals.

And there, there seem to be all sorts of agreements, including agreements that are being done between certain states, you know, on health for mineral, for critical minerals.

I mean, in the, in the industry, there is, as you said, a lot of a lack of transparency between mining companies.

They they have their own ways of, of exploiting and processing and so forth that the minerals.

So if you could explain a little bit more how you know the different types of of agreements that are actually being done in in reality, in the real world.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for your question.

So coming to the list, the the, the criticality of the list is, is most of the lists that member states draft concerned the supply of those for their own industry.

And so the, the, the, the composition and the length of those lists depends on your their industrial and the Member States individual industrial footprint if you want.

And so for certain member States and their own production, so certain member states have production of certain of some of those minerals and therefore they're not critical for their perspective, but they might be critical in another member states because they don't have extraction of that of that particular.

Some member states have heavy concentrated industries in certain sectors and for them certain minerals are particularly critical, while other member states might not be in that situation.

So most of them refers to their own capacity for production and their own industrial footprint in terms of where those minerals are needed.

And, and then and, and that's the reason why we in the UN don't have an official list of these minerals.

But the EU, the US, the China have have their own list.

But we do work on, on, on the criticality of minerals, as I was mentioned before, importantly, the the critical, let me say it's a condition, the supply of those minerals is critical.

But what we tend to look at this as well is OK, once you have understood that the that supply is critical, how do you bring about that supply in a way which is environmental and sustainable over time?

Because that is another aspect of the criticality that many member states do not take into consideration.

They only look at the availability of those minerals.

And this is where we have been working in supporting member states to look at as well.

You know, the extractor extraction or processing of those minerals is critical as well from an environmental, environmental perspective, water use perspective, from an energy perspective, from a social perspective, becoming therefore to the tools.

So I mentioned the UNFC for example is being adopted as the EU wide classification methodology for reserves.

And it actually the European Union has launched months ago the first call for strategic projects which are projects within the EU and outside the EU.

In this in countries that have signed up with the European Union strategic partnerships for supply to the EU of their of critical minerals.

And those projects that are around 60 projects who have been submitted within the EU and outside 4047 inside the European Union and 13 outside of the European Union are all classified according to UNFC, which therefore it's looking at their economic and financial viability, but as well their environmental and their social dimension and their degree of feasibility.

Because, you know, we're discussing not with certainty.

When you talk about geology, you're talking about, you know, probability.

And, and so you have 60 projects already there and the, and they've been assessed by the European Union, they've been assessed as strategic projects.

And now they are following up with the provisions of the Euro Materials Act, which are faster permitting and then facilitating investments coming, you know, financial support for those projects, etcetera.

We, the UNFC and UMS are being used not only in the European Union, but across the world.

I mentioned, you know, for example, Ukraine, the in Ukraine, the, the, the government has adopted UNFC as well as their standards.

But across the world in Latin America and Africa, the African Union is using UNFC to derive the derivation of adapted to the African context of of the UNFC for their own purposes.

And so and you are a mess.

Equally, they've been used by by across across the world in in many projects, as we know.

And increasingly, and you mentioned as well, you know, mining companies, increasingly mining companies are adopting as well these, these, these methodologies because besides their own, if you want regulatory reporting obligations, whether if they are listed on a Stock Exchange, they need to, they need to report to the stock exchanges according to certain standards and methodologies or the national, wherever they are registered, they need to report to that they are increasingly using UNFC in UNMS because they are international standards, first of all.

So it's the same whether you are using UNFC in Europe or in Switzerland or in Africa is exactly the same methodology anywhere.

And then as well, because as I said before, it takes into consideration aspects such as the oriental and social considerations, which the industry understands very well that is, is absolutely necessary to embrace.

And many companies have been doing that and many companies because they realise that they're coming forward and being a lot more accurate, transparent about that.

And we do work with them in, in bringing transparency to the sector.

So it's, it's in, it's not the whole industry.

[Other language spoken]

It's there is a, a large part of the industry that is socially is socially aware and environmentally aware of their, of their footprint.

And they want to they want to address those issues and we're working with them in addressing those issues across the world.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry.

So on, on that point, when it comes to you talk about the certain larger companies that are adopting that are, that are listed that are adopting these, these these standards.

But again, I mentioned these bilateral agreements that are taking place now and including agreements in the DRC that are taking place in, in conflict areas where you have both, you know, social and environmental issues.

How you know how, how do you, is there?

I guess what, what I'm asking you is, is, are we seeing now a risk of countries deviating, you know, these standards and just going their own, their own way in, in accessing those, those critical minerals?

So let me distinguish the two because you have bilateral agreement between countries and then you have what you what you said, which is the illegal and informal mining activities and to not necessarily go together.

And by the way, I mean, most bilateral agreements are official documents and they're officially and they look at official operations.

So our methodologies can be used in bilateral agreements.

This is up to member states to use them.

I mean, we, we there, you know, we produce public goods for free and therefore everybody can use them.

And they, and we, we invite member States to use our methodologies in their bilateral agreements too, so that it's easy, you know, data is compatible.

And then what more importantly, what we care about, which is the environmental and the social impact are taking into consideration in this bilateral agreements when it comes to illegal and informal mining.

This, this is mostly a development issue.

It's not it's a this happens in areas where development opportunities are scars, where the the the member states infrastructure are, whether it's the regulatory, whether it's the legal architecture is is relatively weak where you have conflicts, for example.

And so this is of course, it's a much larger issue than you know, using methodologies or, or what we you know, what been discussing here.

The issue at the at the at the back at the bottom of the of the of this issue is the is, is fundamentally a development problem.

And, and here with the whole UN nations, not just UNEC, but everybody, all of our agencies in the US system are involved in avoiding this, this type of situations, whether it's in the field through the work of UNDP, for example, the work of UNAODC, which is the office in drugs crimes who are supporting legislation, put it in place, relevant legislation, UNDP, developing economic, you know, develop economic opportunities for the populations and in all of the other.

So it's, it's really, it's much larger of, of just simply, you know, looking at this from the, the, the issue around critical minerals, because it happens as well in minerals which are not critical.

It happens, you know, some in some industries.

We've been there for many, many, many, many years.

It will it is becoming and in an issue if you want and as well as a certain criminal operations in the critical mineral space because of the importance of these minerals are taking right now and then certainly using methodologies such as UNFC and URMS which bring transparency, which brings data comparability.

We want, you know, want to avoid those issues and, and, and so that is particularly, very particularly relevant that what happens in certain industries and in central countries doesn't go, doesn't gets replicated elsewhere.

And we're working of course with member states in supporting member states addressing those issues appropriately.

[Other language spoken]

We had a question for Mike Pay in the room, please.

Robin, Thank you.

This this race for minerals that that we've spoken about 1 can see how that would provide fertile ground for, for conflict battles for control of land, etcetera.

So do you think having these these these frameworks and standards and and tools is something that could actually be useful in in, in preventing conflict situations before they before they arise?

[Other language spoken]

I think the first of all, as I mentioned before, these tools bring transparency and bring inclusiveness, which means therefore that, you know, all of the relevant stakeholders, including the local populations participate in this process and can benefit from that, bring transparency.

So you know, you know, people around the table know what we're talking about.

And in that that clarifies, brings us well, it brings us well, if you want attention to the environment, which is another aspect which, which, which avoids, if you want confrontation between different segments of of the population.

You know, if you have, you have typically the mining operations happen where is either in a, in a situation where you have land that can be used for agricultural purposes, for example, for cattle raising purposes or for, or there is, you know, pristine land and, and you have other type of livelihoods around that depend on that land.

And therefore, if you alter those equilibrium that have been there for for many years, of course this creates attention, creates a conflict between different segments within of the population that is there.

It helps as well in terms of of facilitating trade.

If you have data which is commonly used and commonly accepted and you know that that data has been created correctly, that facilitates trade and trade is much better than any sort of other alternative for getting hold of those of those minerals.

So we definitely and that is that is the whole purpose and in empowers as well the people, whether it's the member state who is, you know, in charge, who is in a it was has those meaning who is endowed with that wealth or the local populations to understand that wealth of value and be able to negotiate, be able to to to sit down at the table with investors, with project sponsors, with other stakeholders as peers and have and you know, and develop those that wealth in a sustainable way.

[Other language spoken]

We've got a question from AP Online.

[Other language spoken]

And then after that another from FBI online as well.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Mr Liguti for coming to see us.

I wanted to just find out what the latest is that you have about the impact of the conflict in the Persian Gulf on the deliveries the the transit of components and sulphur and various other inputs for the production of a critical minerals elsewhere in the world.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for your question, very, very topical question.

So the, the, the, the impact of the, of the Gulf War is not only is it an energy market, it's been impacting as well as some sub products coming from oil.

And you mentioned sulphur correctly, but a helium as well.

And then NAFTA, which are byproducts of the oil refining and, and are used in different processes.

Particularly sulphur is used in metals processing and NAFTA is used as well in some of in the production of some oligo elements that are then used in the refining of these metals.

Helium is as you know is, is a cooling gas which is used in in the semiconductors industry.

Everybody knows about that, but as well in certain other industrial projects, so processes, so the unavailability of these products which are being supplied and there is a large part of this product.

For example, 30% of the world's sulphur production goes transit through through the Strait of Hormuz and the actually they they will have an impact.

Right now industries are using their existing stocks and they're using the reserves and they're and they're of course, you know, ramping up production elsewhere that from that the particular geographical area.

But this the the over time if the situation, if the conflict situation continues that that those the shortages will become evident and will be bring will force industries to lower their production of certain technologies and particularly critical minerals for renewable energy equipment for example, or digital technologies for that purpose as well.

And therefore over time that will have an increasing impact on prices first of this equipment and then secondly on the availability of that equipment if the if the conflict continues.

So far the situation is being felt in in some regional markets, particularly in South Asia and South East Asia, where there is a lot of refining and processing going on of this, of this initial of this initial commodities.

But over time that will be the, the, the, the geographical scope will will become larger.

And so we very much like everybody else, we hope that this conflict situation ends as soon as possible.

Not only from this perspective, of course, first and foremost from the humanitarian and the peace situation, but as well of the because of the importance of these of these countries and the and the the availability of these supplies for for the energy transition.

Thank you We turn to Alexander from life pay online.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, very well.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you thank you for this press conference.

You're mentioning that the the current extraction and uses of these minerals are highly concentrated.

Could you elaborate a little bit about that and and perhaps explain what problems that could cause, particularly for instance within the trade war between China and the US?

[Other language spoken]

So some of them, some of these minerals essential for the energy in the digital technology are highly concentrated, whether on the extraction side.

For example, cobalt, 73% of the world production of of raw cobalt ore is is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo rare earths, which we heard a lot about it, 69% of the world production is concentrated in China of the of of the this is on extraction side.

So the primary input, the what we call the primary resource coming from from China niobium which is a very unknown is an unknown metal, but particularly important is actually 92% of the world production is concentrated in Brazil.

And I can go on for a number of other critical minerals on the processing side as well.

A very large part of the refining and processing capacity is actually located in China with in in certain in certain minerals extremely high around 90% for certain minerals going lower in other minerals, Nickel for example, there is more balanced with Indonesia for example, there is a an important refining capacity in Indonesia.

The issue with concentration of extraction and refining and processing is an issue because and we have seen whether you have natural catastrophes or, or such as you know, earthquakes or or interruptions of, of, of transport or trade or catastrophes like you know like like COVID-19 or geopolitical tensions.

Having a very concentrated source of these minerals creates weaknesses, creates fragility in the supply chains.

And the supply chains are global and they depend on, if a supply chain which is global depends on uniquely on one or two suppliers, that creates A weakness, an inherent weakness.

And anything that happens to that supply, it affects the whole supply chain and the end product globally.

And that is why it's particularly is particularly important.

And that's that's the reason as well why many member states, such as the United States, for example, the European Union and others are diversifying their sources of of of supply of these minerals, whether domestically or from other or from other supplies around the world to lower the concentration to lower their dependence on a single on a single source.

[Other language spoken]

I see that Jamie might have online a follow up question.

Is that the case?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, John, Mr I just wanted to drill down on your comments earlier, if you don't mind.

You mentioned that that you said that right now that companies are using their existing stocks, for example of helium in particular or sulphur.

And I'm just wondering, have you been able to document or or come up with any figures about the create impact so far?

And what kind of time frame we're looking at for how long these companies can hold out with the existing stocks, how long that they could go for before it gets to be a critical point and we're going to start seeing prices rise and supplies diminish?

[Other language spoken]

I wish I would, but these these are commercially sensible information which is not shared with with us or with the Member States.

So I'm not, I'm not able to, to give you a prediction on, on how big those stocks are And then more importantly, how long they can last.

Because that very much depends as well on, as I said, on the, on the rate of use.

If they lower the rate of use or any historical comparison might not be really meaningful from that perspective.

Because if they slow down production, they they slow down as well the use of those of those minerals and as well the potential availability from other sources, which I recall.

Again, this is a market which is data availability is crucial.

It's not totally and, and, and completely transparent and available.

This data, a lot of this data is commercially sensible as you can, as you can imagine.

And therefore that's the reason why we're trying as well to bring in UNFC United Nations framework classification to bring, you know, more availability to this data to be able to have those, those analysis that you just mentioned.

It is a work in progress and it will take some time, but right now it's it's highly difficult.

It's extremely difficult to give you any sort of of prediction with a little bit of of confidence.

Thank you, Daario for this.

I'm not seeing any further hand raised online, but the follow up question in the room.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, I wanted to ask you, you mentioned that that you're working with certain mining companies on the UN resource management system.

I'm wondering if you could mention which companies that you're engaging with.

I'll let you, why don't you come next week?

Next week we have a very big, a full week dedicated to resource management.

We call it the Resource Management Week.

And many of those companies will be there.

So I'll invite you to join us next week here at the Palette and then we'll find out who those companies are.

[Other language spoken]

Let me add to that that we will share with all of you links to the full programme of next week's sessions highlighting a particular two or three which might be of particular interest to to you, especially at the current juncture with the current developments.

Dario, let me based on discussions we had with some of the journalists over the past weeks, past days preparing this press conference.

Let me come up to a point which hasn't yet directly been raised, which is any shortage expected shortage of CRM foreseen as a result of the conflict in the Gulf.

You touched a little bit upon that, but more precisely directed at the the critical minerals themselves.

So a very difficult question to answer.

First of all, because there are, there are many critical minerals and they and, and they are, they respond to very different markets and, and very different dynamics.

Some of those mean typically there aren't very large stocks of these minerals because they were freely available up to very and they continue they continue in the markets, although some of those have already reacted with price increases.

So besides the big, you know the usual minerals like copper, nickel, etcetera of which there are plenty of of stocks within the industries within Member states certain as well as you know our internationally traded.

So you have some physical stocks in, in in stock exchanges, some of the more, some of the more rare or some of the more if you want unknown the minerals that are less stocks around that mostly because as well they are byproducts of other processes of other industrial processes or metallurgical processes.

And that is more harder to estimate the existing availability as we speak right now at the global level, whether within industries who use them or in strategic stocks that some member States keep of some of those minerals.

There is what I can tell you is there is a drive from many member States around the world to secure those minerals.

And we will see increasing increasingly Member States building strategic stocks of those minerals to avoid going into the future or facing into the future this sort of situation when the supply situation comes back to normal.

Very hard to answer that question on on us right now as we speak, we haven't seen that happening.

But as I said before, if the conflict in the in the Gulf zone were to continue for for more, more time, we will see that happening.

And the first reaction besides of course the increase in prices will be industries lowering their use and therefore lowering their production of whether it's solar panels, whether it's magnets, where there is batteries, etcetera going forward.

Thank you very much, Dario.

I'm turning back to the audience for any follow up questions if there are any.

I don't say any for now.

Turning quickly to the online, don't see any neither.

So maybe it's time to wrap up this press conference.

Let me just add just in case that Dario here can also if some of you are interested in some bites in French and Spanish could also provide that.

So feel free to get in touch right now after we close this if there is an interest from radio stations or or TV stations and we'll accommodate that.

Thank you very much for your attention this morning and we'll forward you some complimentary elements and details about this topic.

Thank you very much.