The International Raw Materials Observatory will advance international cooperation mechanisms on mineral raw materials, as defined in thematic action plans addressing research and innovation, education and outreach, industry and trade, and recycling, management and substitution of critical raw materials. Considering that actions highly depend on potential future developments (and future developments can be influenced by actions), the scenario method was selected as an appropriate foresight methodology for developing 3 alternative future scenarios for raw materials in 2050. These provide a baseline set of potential future developments in the Action Plans. Within this brochure, the reader will gain insights into the methodology applied and into the main characteristics of each of the three future scenarios.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world would not exist, and the battle to control them will determine our future. • Finalist for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award The fiber-optic cables that weave the World Wide Web, the copper veins of our electric grids, the silicon chips and lithium batteries that power our phones and cars: though it can feel like we now live in a weightless world of information—what Ed Conway calls “the ethereal world”—our twenty-first-century lives are still very much rooted in the material. In fact, we dug more stuff out of the earth in 2017 than in all of human history before 1950. For every ton of fossil fuels, we extract six tons of other materials, from sand to stone to wood to metal. And in Material World, Conway embarks on an epic journey across continents, cultures, and epochs to reveal the underpinnings of modern life on Earth—traveling from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan to the eerie green pools where lithium originates. Material World is a celebration of the humans and the human networks, the miraculous processes and the little-known companies, that combine to turn raw materials into things of wonder. This is the story of human civilization from an entirely new perspective: the ground up.

Using aluminum as a detailed case study from which it might be possible to construct a model applicable to other industries, examines the political, economic, social, and environmental aspects of extracting raw material from peripheral countries for processing and use in core countries. Ten papers from a conference in Madison, Wisconsin (no date noted) cover ecology, economy, and raw material industry structures; firm strategies and international competition; establishing control of peripheral resources; and Brazilian resource development and Japanese access strategies. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

From two leading scholars in the field, a comprehensive account of the Chinese economy's explosive growth over the past 25 years.