Report: Silver miners need $2.1 trillion by 2050 to meet demand

A report released Thursday by commodity market research provider Bloomberg NEF claims the industry will need an infusion of $2.1 trillion by the middle of the century to meet net-zero demand for raw materials.

If that is not achieved, the report claims, the cost of clean energy technologies could rise significantly due to metal deficits.

BloombergNEF is already reporting expected deficits in aluminum, copper, and lithium by 2030, which could complicate the widely reported silver deficit that has already caused concern among solar energy advocates.

According to Allan Ray Restauro, a metals and mining associate at BNEF, “Good government policies are crucial to the industry’s success. For batteries and stationary storage, governments need to establish collection networks, set the requirements for recovery rates, develop the frameworks to trace individual cells and provide the principles on second-life battery management. These actions can build a robust system that oversees the full lifecycle of battery metals.”

Transition metal use in China has been growing faster than the rest of the world, and the country is expected to have peak demand in 2030.

“Asia is seen becoming the fastest growing market for energy transition metals in the 2030s,” the report states.

Increased recycling efforts could reduce market pressure, which would lower supply's lifecycle emissions.

Kwasi Ampofo, head of metals and mining at BNEF, said, “The prolonged deficit of these metals will lead to higher prices of raw materials, which increases the cost of clean energy technologies. High costs could slow their adoption and the energy transition at large.”