Minerals and Chemical Companies

The purpose of this blog is to gain a better understanding of how chemical companies interact with minerals.  The following provides various interactions between chemical companies and minerals. 

• Chemical companies sell chemicals to assist in the extraction of minerals from mined materials.  Companies that sell such chemicals include: Arkema; BASF; Clariant; Olin; and Solvay.
• Chemical companies rely on minerals as raw materials for producing their products.  Companies that rely on minerals for raw materials include BASF; Mosaic; Solvay; Umicore; and Yara.
• Chemical companies own mines and process materials mined from mines to obtain minerals.  Companies that own mines and process materials for minerals include Albemarle; Chemours; and Clariant.
• Chemical companies, in addition to providing chemicals for assisting in extracting minerals from materials, provide consulting services related to minerals.  These services include ways of recycling minerals.  Companies that provide such services include Akzo Nobel; Clariant; and Umicore.

Like other natural products important as raw materials for providing products in demand by an increasing global population, the supply and use of minerals will be important.  The ways in which chemical companies use and interact with minerals, for example, those provided above, need to continue to be researched, developed, improved, and implemented. 

Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert – September 2022

The purpose of this blog is to identify chemical and metal shortages reported on the Internet.  The sources of the information reported here are primarily news releases issued on the Internet.  The issue period of the news releases is September 2022. 

Section I below lists those chemicals and metals that were on the previous month’s Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert list and continue to have news releases indicating they are in short supply.  Click here to read the August 2022 Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert list.

Section II lists the new chemicals and metals (not on the August alert).  Also provided is some explanation for the shortage and geographical information.  This blog attempts to list only actual shortage situations – those shortages that are being experienced during the period covered by the news releases.  Chemicals and metals identified in news releases as only being in danger of being in shortage status are not listed. 

Section I. 

• Construction materials:  United States; production not keeping up with demand 

Section II.   Shortages Reported in September not found on the Previous Month’s Lists 

• Helium: global; production not keeping up with demand
• Inorganic chemicals: Germany; supply not keeping up with demand 

Reasons for Section II shortages can be broadly categorized as:  

• Mining not keeping up with demand: none
• Production not keeping up with demand: helium
• Sources no longer available: none
• Insufficient imports:  none
• Supply not keeping up with demand: inorganic chemicals