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Rare materials: France scores a decisive point

On September 18, 2023, the first meeting of ISO technical committee 345, led by France, was held. Behind this code name lies an essential subject for our industry: that of rare or critical materials, also known as "specialty materials".

Published on 22/09/2023, updated 12/09/2024 à 16:57 Reading time : 3 minutes

Did you know that your smartphone needs more than 50 rare materials to function? Among them, and for batteries alone: lithium, cobalt and nickel. Indium too, to make the screens touch-sensitive. But rare materials aren’t just for our telephones; they’re indispensable for electric vehicles, all digital technologies, renewable energies, medical devices and more.

The European Union began listing them in 2014. In the 2020 edition of this census, their number had already more than doubled: the list reached 30 names. These materials are largely imported and are the subject of a vast economic and geopolitical battle. The starting point was their quality: manufacturers soon found it important to agree on how their purity levels would be measured, before buying them. And that’s where the voluntary standard comes in.

ISO/TC 345: 14 participating members and 16 observers

In July 2023, after a year and a half of hard work, negotiations and diplomacy, France pulled off a major coup on the global chessboard, which is proving particularly complex, between customs duties and the creation of scarcity effects. Among the pawns available to every country, one of the most powerful is ISO standards. ” We are pleased and proud to announce that ISO has validated the creation of a technical committee (TC 345) on specialty metals and materials, covering cobalt in particular, and assigned to AFNOR as secretariat “, announced Franck Lebeugle, director of the association’s standardization activities this summer, who has the mandate to represent France in international voluntary standardization bodies. The committee currently has 14 participating members and 16 observers.

The program includes cobalt, essential to the nuclear industry, and many other equally strategic minerals and materials: antimony, beryllium, chromium, niobium, platinum-group metals and graphite. ” A perfect example of the usefulness of voluntary standards: this is the starting point of an adventure that begins with analysis methods… and which may well lead us to the vital subjects of responsible mining and recycling “, concluded Franck Lebeugle. AFNOR will have to build the French position to defend internationally. An information webinar will be held on December 7, 2023 to present the work.

In the meantime, companies are preparing their weapons for this strategic market. Like Arverne, a young industrial company specializing in geothermal energy and lithium. This mission-driven company has officially acquired Transition and gone public, opening the door to a €150 million fund-raising operation, the biggest on the Paris Bourse since the start of 2023.