Critical raw materials as a part of sustainable development

Abstract

The presented article deals with the issue of critical raw materials in the European Union with an emphasis on sustainable development and also barite, as an only one critical raw material mined in Slovakia. The article points out in detail the deposits of individual critical raw materials within the European Union. They clearly profile the European area´s dependence on imports of critical raw materials in accordance with the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the European Union's list of critical raw materials. Based on a defined Herfindahl-Hirschman index, which is clearly methodologically described, the article also points to the exploitation of critical raw materials in the European Union, what is in consideration of sustainable development crucial because some inventions are fundamentally dependent on them, as is their production on world markets. This article deals with critical raw materials in the EU, because it is in this area that we would like to experience the 4th industrial revolution, which is characterized by "new products" with a short life cycle, products with the least possible impact on the environment, i.e. innovations that are often impossible without important raw materials. Is it at all possible to talk about sustainable development with such raw material sources in European Union?