Raw Material's Production Data: An Analysis of International Data Collections and Their Applications

This Master’s Thesis is divided into three parts. First, three international data collections (World Mining Data, British Geological Survey, United States Geological Survey) of raw material’s production data, and one collection on European level (Eurostat) are evaluated. The assessment includes commodities reported, countries covered, additional information on the commodity, as well as strengths and weaknesses of each report. Secondly, applications using these reports are discussed, showing numerous studies and policy measurements relying on the figures by the data collections. This includes the criticality study of the European Union, Material Flow Analysis, and Sustainable Development Goals. Thirdly, two power plants are compared in terms of material requirements for their construction – a combined heat and power plant and a wind farm. The amount of materials used per kilowatt hour of electricity production is assessed, as well as their recyclability and criticality for the EU.