Mineral organisations warn of commodity dilution

Three pan-European extractive minerals organisations have welcomed the publication of the EU’s Communication on the access to raw materials but have warned that the inclusion of commodity markets in the document may dilute the message.

The 962 UEPG, 3786 IMA-Europe and 1883 Cembureau have said that the Communication ‘Tackling the challenges in commodity markets and on raw materials’ places good emphasis on the importance of raw materials. Nonetheless, they believe that sharing the stage with commodities rather than using the original aim of the Raw Materials Initiative will reduce the focus on the aggregates market as the aim of the Communication is now too broad and covers too many industries.

Regarding the inclusion of commodities in the Communication, the EU has said “Recent developments on commodity markets show that the prices of derivative and physical markets may be linked in multiple ways [to the raw materials sector]. Clearly, the price of commodity derivatives is influenced by the price of the underlying commodity. It is also clear that investors increasingly use commodity derivatives as part of their strategic investments.”