Electio Invest

Electio Invest is a leading global alternative asset management company focusing on

commodities, primarily Technology Metals. Electio Invest was founded by a group of likeminded high net worth investors as a niche investment platform enabling judicious investors
to diversify their portfolios into the Investment Sector.

Electio Invest - Demand For Technology

Metals Rising - Special Report by Electio
Invest

Millions of people in emerging economies are aspiring to a Western lifestyle; at the

same time demand for metals is soaring due to the booming global population. As
technology advances, the variety of metals we use is also expanding. As an unfortunate
result of this, the fears regarding scarcity of metals and depletion of resources have

returned in the past ten years or so. These concerns are focused on the future supplies
of metals such as lithium, indium, tellurium, Technology Metal elements
and germanium. All of these metals are crucial to producing new digital and low-carbon
energy technologies, and this includes electric and photovoltaic cars.
China reduced its exports of Technology Metals back in 2009 when this issue came to
global prominence, and the government was trying to keep up the supply to its very
quickly expanding domestic manufacturing economy. Socio-economic and geopolitical
risks, such as labour relations in southern Africa and territorial disputes in Asia, can
disturb supply because technology metals are not produced in very many locations.
The issue is compounded by commercial barriers. Compared to the markets for copper,
iron and aluminium, the markets for these materials can be risky due to the fact that
theyre not easy to extract and their markets are complex, small and volatile. The

industrial, scientific and policy communities must combine together to ensure that

supplies of these metals are secured for future technology. The governments have
commissioned many assessments, and these have all fallen short. They do identify key
issues, but they also generate lots of non-effective discussion on whether certain metals
are critical. Generally their solutions are generic and of no practical use. One such
response has been the idea that securing technology metals in the United Kingdom and
mainland Europe could be achieved through recycling. Certainly, recycling is very
important when managing stocks of common industrial metals, however applying this to
technology metals would be very complex. Some materials are impossible, or
impractical, to recover after use. Its obvious that more primary sources must be found

to continue meeting the rising demand, and to replace lost technology metals. We need
to better understand the geological processes that concentrate these metals if we are to
find new resources. The flows of individual metals must be mapped from the ground to
their final form if we are to avoid unintended environmental impacts, and also to increase
efficiency.
These Are Rare Resources
In the past forty years the demand for technology metals has exploded, with eighty
percent of the cumulative global production of Tech Metal elements, gallium, indium

and platinum-group metals occurring since 1980. Its expected that growth will continue
in the foreseeable future. Most of the technology metals are found in only a few areas:
for example, in 2011, 57% of indium originated from China and 72% of global cobalt
came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo: these metals are produced in low
quantities. In 2011, 1.5 billion tonnes of crude steel and 45.2 million tons of aluminium
were extracted globally, compared with just 72,900 tonnes of tungsten. Its been the
conclusion of some studies that the scarcity and depletion of technology metals are
unavoidable, because rising consumption will exceed current reserves. What these
forecasts fail to remember is that geological reserves are dynamic; expanding as metal

prices rise and the extraction of lower-grade ores becomes economical, and contracting
as prices fall. A combination of technical advances and price pressures has managed to
keep global reserves of most of these metals either steady or growing during the past
fifty years. There has been little need to look for technology metals until recently
because they were of little economic interest. Because of this, very little is known about
their distribution on the Earth, or what natural processes concentrate them. With
increasing knowledge we should be able to explore new frontiers and also re-appraise
old mining areas. For example, in 2009 at Norra Karr in Sweden, a significant deposit
of heavy Technology Metals elements was identified, and in southwest England

previous mines could hold promise for tungsten. However, a major challenge can be to
overcome public objections to new mines, particularly in the developed world where
people are very hesitant to embrace the repercussions of overt consumption.

Its Not Enough to Recycle

Secondary metals that have been recycled from discarded products do provide valuable
additional resources, however this secondary stock can never be enough to meet the
growing demand. Plus, recycling has its technical limits. Technology Metals are used in
so many applications, from motor vehicles to mobile phones. There can be up to sixty

different elements going into the manufacture of circuit boards and microprocessors,
normally in small quantities, and often in unique combinations not found naturally. Once a
device is no longer in practical use, whether a metal can be recovered depends on the
value of the element, the accessibility, and concentration, once its combined with other
materials. Gold and platinum-group metals are the main targets in the re-processing of
used circuit boards. At the same time, lower valued antimony, copper and indium can be
recovered. However, metals such as gallium, tantalum, tech metal elements and
germanium are oxidized, and become lost in the smelter slag. The recycling of technology
metals becomes most attractive, economically, when theyre very concentrated, like in

manufacturing scrap. Approximately seventy percent of the indium which is used in the
production of flat-screen televisions ends up as scrap, and is then recycled. To work out
inefficiencies and bottlenecks requires the measurement of technology metal stocks and
also an understanding of how they move through the complete supply chain; from the
process of mining to concentration, extractive and process metallurgy, the manufacturing,
use, reuse and recycling, and dispersal through to disposal. As an example, if the recovery
technology at tungsten mines was improved, it would increase the amount of metal in the
ore that finally reaches the smelter currently 90% for gold but only 75% for tungsten. In
fact, more than 90% of platinum group metals used in auto catalysts should be able to be

recovered, but in practice, only 50-60% is recovered from European scrap cars due to the
fact that a lot of second-hand vehicles are exported to areas that dont have facilities for
recycling. An analysis of metal flows could determine if a plan to recover lost catalytic
converters might be more efficient than a different scheme, like the 2011 idea of a UK
waste management company to recover metals from road sweepings. Sweepings contain
less than 1 part per million, while auto catalysts contain approximately 0.2% platinumgroup metals. Technological barriers to resource efficiency must be addressed, and is a
focus of initiatives: for example, the European Innovation Partnership on Raw
Materials. This is a network of European countries, and its aim is to increase the

production of raw materials across the region. Of course its always going to be
challenging trying to map the life-cycle of critical metals: low volumes, the extraction,
processing and recycling are controlled by only a few organizations, and business
confidentiality can make contacts and data hard to access.

We Need One System

Concerns regarding the securing of technology metals supplies have evolved over the
past five years, from panic over physical depletion and the geopolitical muscle-flexing of
China, to the quite dangerous assumption by some policy makers that the remedy is
simply to recycle. We need a more holistic approach. Both primary and secondary

sources should be considered as part of one system, and that system needs to be
completely understood. Its crucial to have basic statistical data. The communication
between producers, processors, consumers and recyclers must be improved. Its the
duty of policy makers to assess how these technology metals are used and combined,
and the resulting impact on the economic and environmental options of recycling
them. There are very clear benefits to securing supplies of technology metals. Theres a
huge opportunity here for researchers and for industry to improve efficiency and to
reduce the environmental footprint of extraction and processing of these metals from
primary sources.

Electio Invest Company Profile

Electio Invest are a leading global alternative asset management company focusing on
commodities, primarily Technology Metals. Electio Invest are the worldwide front runners
when it comes to personal investment in industrial commodities. For further information
on investing with Electio Invest please call +971 (0) 4447 0990