Keeping The Lights On! – EU Publishes Action Plan For Critical Raw Materials

In the current climate, when the topic of supply shortages is mentioned, the automatic reaction of many of us is to turn our thoughts to items such as masks, antiseptic wash and toilet paper which, in the early days of the Covid 19 pandemic, seemed to vanish from shop shelves almost before they had been placed on them. Few of us would reference raw materials such as rare-earth elements, cobalt, lithium, and tungsten. Yet many materials, such as these, have become essential for the functioning of modern technology; the technology that so many people relied on during the 'lockdown' period both in Cyprus and, elsewhere around the world. Quite literally, in the case of tungsten, they enable us to 'keep the lights on'. They also, together with 26 other raw materials, form the 2020 EU 'Critical Raw Materials' List ('CRM List').