Experts find the UK increasingly dependent on mineral imports – especially for energy and industry
Minerals are essential for our economic and social life. They provide most of our energy and building materials and are vital raw materials for industry.
A group of experts has looked at trends in the production and consumption of minerals in the UK over the past 40 years. Their report can be found at: http://www.bgs.ac.uk/ukmf/home.html
Headline findings:
• Overall, during the past 40+ years the UK has become increasingly dependent on imports of minerals and minerals-based products. This is likely to continue and increase as offshore oil and gas reserves run down.
• Total UK minerals consumption (production + imports – exports) declined by about 35% between 1970 and 2011 from 619 Mt to 403 Mt. Over the same period. UK minerals production also declined by about 35%
• At the same time the total value of UK minerals output increased in real terms by almost 300%, from £12.6 billion in 1970 to £37.7 billion in 2011, largely due to offshore oil and gas production
• Oil production increased from 156,000 tonnes in 1970 to 44.6 million tonnes in 2012. It peaked at 137.7 Mt in 1999
• Natural gas production increased from 9.7 Mt oil equivalent (oeq.) in 1970 to 38.9 Mt in 2012. It peaked at 110.9 Mt oeq, in 2000
• UK domestic coal output fell by nearly 90% from 144.6 Mt in 1970 to 16.3 Mt in 2012; while net exports of 3.3 Mt have become net imports of 44.3 Mt
• GB primary aggregates consumption (crushed rock, and sand gravel) declined by nearly 30% between 1970 and 2011, from 208 Mt to 146 Mt, after peaking at 300 Mt in 1989
• Broadly over the same 1970-2011 period, production of:
o GB brick clay fell nearly 78% from about 18 Mt to 4 Mt
o GB cement raw materials fell 63% from 26.7 Mt (1974) to 9.9 Mt
o Kaolin (china clay) – a major export mineral – fell by nearly 46% from 2.4 Mt to an estimated 1.3 Mt
o Ball clay – primarily for use in ceramics and also mainly exported - was one of the very few domestic minerals to have increased, by 27%, from 732,000 tonnes to 930,000 tonnes, peaking at nearly 1.1 Mt in 2000
o Potash mining - a potential growth sector - started in 1974 and reached an estimated 770,000 tonnes in 2011, peaking at 1.04 Mt in 2003
o Salt production – important for the chemicals industry and road de-icing, fell by nearly 33% from 9 Mt to 6 Mt
This backward look has been produced to provide data in support of a study by a Working Group of the UK Minerals Forum on Future Minerals Scenarios for the UK.
The Group is examining how the UK can maintain supplies of essential minerals over the next 35 years to 2050. What minerals will we need, where can they be found and will we be able to obtain them? It is looking particularly at minerals already being produced in the UK or which could be produced here.
The Group’s findings will be reported to a CBI-sponsored Conference in London in November 2014.
Speaking at the publication of the Past Trends report, the Chairman of the UK Minerals Forum, Lester Hicks, said: “It has been well said – ‘if you can’t grow it, you have to mine it’. We cannot do without minerals, for energy, our homes, flood defence, chemicals and manufacturing. Many of our minerals, especially for construction, are still obtained in the UK. These would be especially hard and expensive to import. So where we get our minerals is important. But this interim report shows an overall pattern of declining domestic production and increasing imports over the past 40 years. It sets a challenging baseline from which future possibilities must be examined by the minerals industries, regulators, environmentalists and government”.
