Kazakhstan could be a winner from a looming global minerals squeeze, with demand for some key minerals set to exceed supply by 20 to 150 percent by 2040,...
Kazakhstan could be a winner from a looming global minerals squeeze, with demand for some key minerals set to exceed supply by 20 to 150 percent by 2040, Boston Consulting Group says.
The consultancy, sharing its research with ZTB News, warns companies watch their biggest purchases but ignore the small minerals that can halt a whole production line. Gallium is the example: a market worth under 350 million dollars a year, yet supplies of it underpin about 3.5 trillion dollars of finished goods.
Gallium, germanium and arsenic are mostly extracted as byproducts of other mining, so even a price spike does not quickly raise output. For Kazakhstan, a country rich in subsoil resources, that scarcity is an opening, if it can build the processing to match.
#Kazakhstan