SRI Consulting Releases Securing Scarce Elements Report

Business Wire, Sept 22, 2008

Running Out of Elements?

MENLO PARK, Calif. -- Everyone knows that fossil fuels are finite in supply, yet just as important are a number of critical elements that are also becoming scarce. Some critical elements, the basic building blocks of nature, are threatened with "extinction". Today, SRI Consulting (SRIC) released its new Securing Scarce Elements report, a comprehensive look at scarce elements vital to the chemical, high-tech, and transportation industries.

Securing Scarce Elements is organized around 24 key elements. The report identifies recovery, reserve, recycling, critical applications, supply/demand and price trends for each element. The elements selected are at risk of depletion and are commonly used in many growing electronic and industrial applications. Indium, for instance, is processed into an important transparent conductive coating (indium tin oxide) for the popular liquid crystal and plasma flat panel displays as well as solar cells. Increasing demand coupled with diminishing supply has caused the price of Indium to skyrocket over 900% since 2002. Forecasts indicate there are only a couple decades of reserves left on earth.

SRIC's Consultant and Author T. Adrian Gaitan comments, "Solar cell producers will find the increased cost and scarcity of indium particularly disturbing." Mr. Gaitan continued, "By contrast, indium represents 1% of the price of LCD's and plasma displays, yet it is 60% of the raw material price of certain promising solar cell technologies."

SRIC's Securing Scarce Elements report points out that as demand for scarce elements increases, manufacturers need to closely examine their processing options including: ways to reduce consumption, recycling when viable, and using alternative processes or even materials.

For additional information about this report, please contact Bob Davenport, Director of SRIC's Safe & Sustainable Chemical Series at rdavenport@sriconsulting.com or 1-650-384-4350. Please visit the website at www.sriconsulting.com/SSC for the complete offering of Safe & Sustainable Chemical Series reports.

About SRI Consulting (SRIC)

SRI Consulting is the world's leading business research service for the global chemical industry. Publishing for almost 60 years, SRI Consulting is the preeminent source for in-depth business and process analysis. This report was developed by SRI Consulting's Safe & Sustainable Chemicals group, which provides in-depth, independent technical and business advisories for the chemical and energy industries. SRI Consulting's headquarters are located in Menlo Park, California with offices in The Woodlands, Texas; Zurich, Switzerland; Tokyo, Japan; and Beijing, China. SRI Consulting is a division of Access Intelligence, LLC. Additional information is available at www.sriconsulting.com.

SRI Consulting (SRIC) is a trade name and a registered trademark of SRI International, used under license.