Rohstoffwirtschaftliche Länderstudie - BGR

Rohstoffsituation Deutschland 2009
Figure 1.3: Development of exploration expenditure on new metal projects, and Commodity
Research Bureau (CRB) Metals Sub-Index; data sources: Metals Economics Group,
2008; CRB, 2010
The cyclicity of raw materials prices is a special
feature of the commodities markets. Thus,
there is a continuing risk of high price volatility
on the commodities markets and for German
industry as a whole.
From a purely geological point of view, longterm
availability is assured in the case of coal,
natural gas, uranium, metallic raw materials and
industrial minerals, and is only limited in the
case of oil. The known raw material reserves and
resources for metallic raw materials and industrial
minerals indicate that these do not restrict
the development of supply 6 . What is frequently
overlooked is the fact that only a fraction of
the existing potential of geological raw materials
is known. Thanks to ongoing technological advances
in the exploration sector, new deposits of
raw materials are constantly being discovered.
Even today, the probability of finding new economically
exploitable deposits of raw materials
or being able to make economic use of known
6 EU report “Defining critical raw materials for the EU”,
Report of the Ad-hoc Working Group on defining critical
raw materials, European Commission, Enterprise and
Industry Directorate General, June 2010.
deposits is great. It depends largely on accessibility,
exploration expenditure, investment in mining,
and raw material price levels.
1.1.2 Situation in Germany
Production of domestic raw materials is fundamental
to meeting the raw materials requirements
of the public authorities, German industry and
households, and is comparable to food produc-
tion. This applies above all to the construction and
infrastructure sector, and also to the energy sector.
In 2009 Germany produced mineral and energy
raw materials to the value of €17.5 billion. In the
case of lignite, Germany is actually the world’s
biggest producer and can meet the country’s
entire requirements itself (Chapter 2.1.1).
By contrast, Germany is a 100% net importer
of metallic ores, phosphate, graphite and magnesite,
and imports 97% of its oil, 84% of its
gas and 72% of its coal requirements. It is also
heavily dependent on imports of numerous industrial
minerals and refined metal products
(see Chapter 2.1.2). In the case of refined products
such as lead, copper, aluminium and zinc,
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