IOM3 Mann Redmayne Medal for paper on ‘critical metals’
- By: John P Sykes
Posted in: Blog, Commodities, Media, Mineral Economics, Mining, Publications, Recommended
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Allan Trench, Josh Wright and I have received the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) Mann Redmayne Medal for our paper “Discovery, supply and demand: From metals of antiquity to critical metals”.
The Mann Redmayne Medal is an IOM3 award to a member of IOM3 or AusIMM for the best paper published in one of its three Transactions of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (Mining Technology; Applied Earth Science; or Mineral Processing & Extractive Metallurgy). The award is supported jointly with Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM).
The article used a historical approach to determine which of the many minor ‘critical metals’ markets has the potential to grow into a major industrial metal market. The history of minerals discovery, supply, and demand was tracked from ancient times, through the industrial revolution, and into the present day, including case studies on the rapid growth of the aluminium, nickel, and uranium industries in the early to mid-twentieth century. The paper found that rapid market growth in the minerals sector generally requires concurrent developments in discovery, supply and demand, and as such only those ‘critical metal’ markets which can unlock each of these factors has a chance of becoming a major industrial commodity.
A copy of the paper is available on Researchgate.