Will we have all the materials to ensure our energy and digital transition?
Published February 1st 2023
The Hauts de France Region will host nearly 200 global experts specializing in resource criticality, who will attempt to answer this question at a conference from February 15 to 17, 2023 at LILLIAD (Villeneuve d’Ascq).
200 experts from research, industry and policy-making, as well as participants from around the world, will discuss the supply and demand issues of "critical" raw materials at the first edition of the "International Round Table on Criticality of Materials" to be held at Lilliad at Villeneuve d’Ascq.
This initiative, funded by the European Union's EIT RawMaterials, will host, among others, the Swedish company LKAB which will present and discuss its recent discovery of the rare earth deposit in Kiruna, Sweden.
With the transition to a low-carbon economy - at the top of the French and European political agendas - our societies are becoming increasingly dependent on technologies that require large quantities of critical raw materials. These technologies - such as wind turbines, solar panels, fuel cells, permanent magnet motors and batteries - are crucial for renewable energy and electric mobility. Also in other strategically important areas, a strong increase in demand for critical raw materials is expected such as data centers, defense and aerospace.
The European Commission forecasts strong growth in demand for raw materials such as nickel, lithium, cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements, including neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium. To access these essential materials , Europe depends on imports from a small number of supplier countries. With some of these countries, international relations are subject to geopolitical tensions or risk being so. Mining conditions, environmental impacts and other supply chain issues add to the critical materials supply issues that are of central concern to governments and companies around the world. In order to ensure a sustainable supply of raw materials for development and innovation in Europe, the European Commission and the French government have recently launched initiatives to ensure the "sustainable" supply of critical raw materials for Europe and France.
The International Round Table on Materials Criticality (IRTC), a global network funded by the European Commission's RawMaterials Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT), plays a crucial role in the international debate on these critical raw materials.
The very first edition of the international conference on this subject , IRTC 2023, will be organized at Lilliad (Villeneuve d'Ascq), with the support of WeLOOP. These days will be introduced by:
- Frédéric Motte, President of the REV3 Mission at the Regional Council of Hauts de France
- Bernd Schäfer, CEO of EIT RawMaterials
- Constanze Veeh, Directorate-General for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs of the European Commission
- Xavier Constant, Managing Director of Nyrstar France
In a series of exchanges, international criticality experts will share their views on critical raw materials for a sustainable future in in-depth discussions.
IRTC 2023 will be the first conference to welcome Pierre Heeroma, Senior Vice President of Strategic Projects at LKAB, the Swedish mining company that recently discovered Europe's largest rare earth deposit. He will present the results in Kiruna, discuss the next steps and explain the role this discovery can play in securing Europe's rare earth supply.
Retrouver toutes les informations liées au congrès ainsi qu’au réseau mondial « International Round Table on Materials Criticality on the website: