Analyses of the economic availability of rare metals in the context of the energy transition.

Summary A growing number of academic studies and reports from international organizations point to an increased dependence of new energy technologies on a category of resources often referred to as rare metals. At the same time, concerns have been raised for several years about the economic availability of these metals for the energy transition needed to combat global warming. The objective of this thesis is therefore to highlight all the constraints and risks involved in the frequent and widespread use of these metals in new energy technologies. The first part of the thesis is devoted to the indicators and theories related to the long-term economic availability of a non-renewable resource while highlighting a set of common traits shared by rare metals. The second part of this thesis demonstrates the risks attached to a lack of price elasticity in the supply of rare metals due to a by-product constraint. It also provides an in-depth analysis of the causes and consequences of the absence of a futures market for almost all of these rare metals. Finally, its last chapter proposes to explore the very strong connection between the energy sector and the metals sector. It is shown that this connection is growing and that it implies the possibility of a vicious circle between ever less concentrated energy (with a growing metal content) and metals that consume more and more energy due to their depletion.