A tumultuous few years for fluorspar were capped in June this year after the European Union named it along with 13 other minerals as a critical raw material deemed a “high supply risk”. This versatile mineral, an irreplaceable component of many industrial markets including aluminium and fluorochemicals production, has faced uncertainty from depressed markets and environmental bans, while suffering increased restrictions on its export from the world’s leading producer, China.
Putting figures to China’s production and export of commodities can be tricky, but nevertheless a general pattern that of increasing production and decreasing exports has emerged for acidspar, the main feedstock for hydrofluoric acid which itself is used to manufacture a host of other chemicals (see flowchart).
The USGS reports that China produced 1.25m. tonnes of acidspar in 2000 and industry sources estimate that around 850,000 tonnes was exported. By 2008...