From “strategic” tungsten to “green” neodymium: A century of critical metals at a glance

Abstract

The relative criticality of mineral commodities is evaluated using a wide range of parameters and in different contexts (e.g., from the standpoint of their importance to national security, or to a specific industrial application), which explains the multiplicity of classification schemes and variations in terminology applied to these commodities in the literature, media and government reports. The core group of critical metals, listed alphabetically, includes: antimony, beryllium, chromium, cobalt, gallium, germanium, indium, lithium, niobium, platinoids, rare-earth elements (REE, including yttrium), tantalum and tungsten. The present retrospect briefly describes the emergence of critical metals as a distinct resource type and the evolution of society's perception of these commodities over the past 100 years.