L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ...

High tech metals are often by–products of mining/processing,
which means that their availability is largely determined by the
availability of the main product. Due to its low or very low elasticity
(sometimes as a byproduct of a byproduct, as in the case of rhenium
and hafnium), production cannot adapt easily to demand, which increases
the crisis risk, such as the rush for tantalum in 2000 due to
the boom in mobile phones. For some there is a high degree of concentration
of production at country level, and they are subject to
various protective measures taken by third countries. 3
With regard to chromium, the U.S. has been fully dependent on
its imports since 1961. Notably, 98 percent of the raw material is
supplied from two countries – South Africa and Zimbabwe. By the
way, Zimbabwe has the world's richest deposits of this ore (although
the total reserves in South Africa are bigger). This makes
understandable the reasons underlying the U.S. concern over the
human rights issue in the latter country and the desire to replace
"in a democratic way" its leader for someone more loyal to the
West.
The main sources for EU imports in 2006 were South Africa
(approximately 80%, part of that being re-exported ores from Zimbabwe)
and Madagascar (over 1.8%). 4
World resources are greater than 12 billion tons of shipping–
grade chromite, sufficient to meet conceivable demand for centuries.
About 95% of the world’s chromium resources is geographically
concentrated in Kazakhstan and southern Africa; U.S. chromium
resources are mostly in in Montana. In 2009, the United States was
believed to have consumed about 7% of world chromite ore production
in various forms of imported materials, such as chromite ore,
chromium chemicals, chromium ferroalloys, chromium metal, and
stainless steel. Chromium has no substitute in stainless steel, the
leading end use, or in superalloys, the major strategic end use.
Chromium–containing scrap can substitute for ferrochromium in
some metallurgical uses. Superalloys require chromium. The value
of chromium material consumption in 2008 was $1,283 million as
measured by the value of net imports, excluding stainless steel, and
was expected to be about $320 million in 2009. 5
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