Which natural resources are extracted in Germany?
Quarried natural resources
Latest Update: August 2024
EITI Standard:
Interesting Facts
- Every year, the building materials and quarrying industry extracts roughly 560 million tonnes of primary raw materials (excluding quartz sand, kaolin and fine ceramic clay) or uses these materials in production. In addition, approx. 100 million tonnes of secondary raw materials are used every year in the production of building materials to conserve resources.
- Quarried materials comprise a variety of mineral resources; gravel, sand and natural stone account for the largest share of the total volume extracted.
- Around 80% of the quarried materials are supplied to the building industry, while around 20% is used in the chemical, steel or glass industries.
- Quarried natural resources are needed for the manufacture of many products that we use in our daily lives. Stone powder, for example, is the basic ingredient of toothpaste.
- Statistically, each one of us needs over 1 kg of sand and gravel per hour.
Quarried natural resources
Natural stone and earth materials include a variety of mineral resources, in particular gravel and sand, crushed natural stone, natural stone, limestone, marlstone and dolomite, gypsum and anhydrite stone as well as coarse ceramic clay and loam. Stone and earth are bulk raw materials; they are site-specific due to geological conditions and are not evenly distributed across the country.
History
Quarrying has been handed down since the beginning of human history. According to scientific findings, the oldest known “stones from human hands” originate from the 9th to the 8th millennium B.C., taken from ground fortifications in the Middle East. The extraction of quarried natural resources also has a very long tradition in Germany. In the past, these natural resources were mainly extracted by hand, but companies today use modern technology. Geophysics, GPS, intelligent machine and plant control and largely automated processes control the extraction of these natural resources.
Economic Importance
Every year, the building materials and quarrying industry extracts roughly 540 million tonnes of primary raw materials (excluding quartz sand and gravel, kaolin and fine ceramic clay; these natural resources are covered in the section on industrial minerals) or uses these materials in production. In 2022, gravel and sands with 253 million tonnes and broken natural stone with 210 million tonnes represented the largest share of natural resources in terms of quantity in the German extractive industry. The total value of quarried natural resources was around €5.8 billion in 2022. Thus in 2022 around 31% of the total value of natural resources mined in Germany was attributed to quarried natural resources.
Germany meets its own requirements for quarried natural resources largely from reserves within the country. Quarried products are generally mined on a regional basis and are transported over short distances to the consumers. The reason for this is that the transport costs are relatively high compared to the value of the material. Accordingly, foreign trade plays mainly a role in areas adjacent to the border. The main customers are the countries which are Germany’s direct neighbours, e.g. the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium. In 2022 (2023), imports in terms of volume were approx. 16.4 (14.2) million tonnes valued at €1.5 (€1.2) billion. Exports in terms of volume were approx. 26.3 (23.2 million tonnes valued at €0.9 (€0.9) billion.1 In 2022 (2023), the quarried natural resources sector (including Other mining) employed 38,229 (37,777)2 people in Germany who are subject to social insurance contributions.
Extraction
Quarried natural resources are mined decentrally and, with just a few exceptions, are extracted in open-cast operations. According to the association, gravel and sands were extracted in around 1,970 plants and natural stones at around 760 locations in 2022. A plant/location may include several production sites in Germany.3 When extracting sand and gravel, a distinction is made between dry and wet extraction, depending on the groundwater situation, and these two scenarios require different production techniques. Nearly all quarried natural resources require processing and refinement before they are sent on for their intended use. As non-renewable natural resources, they are also site-bound because of their volumes.
Uses
Around 80% of the quarried materials are supplied directly to the building industry (e.g. civil engineering to build road bases and wearing courses, track ballast) or are initially processed by the building products sector into basic and building materials (e.g. cement, concrete, quick lime, mortar, insulation materials, tiles, bricks) and then supplied to the construction industry. The remaining approx. 20% are used in the chemical, steel or glass industries. In addition to the quarried quantities of primary earth and stone, approx. 100 million tonnes of secondary raw materials (mineral construction waste and by-products from industrial processes) are used in the building industry every year.4 These result from e.g. the demolition of buildings, the production of pig iron (blast furnace slag) or from electricity generation in conventional power stations (FGD gypsum, fly ash). The use of secondary raw materials contributes to the substitution of primary natural resources. The substitution rate is around 15%.5
Other natural resources
Industrial minerals
History
Industrial minerals are mineral rocks that can be immediately used in industry due to their special chemical and physical properties, i.e. without any substance conversion. In addition to the salts already mentioned in section v., this group includes kaolin (also called porcelain earth), quartz sand (clay), special clay (fine ceramic clay), quartzite, feldspar, sticky sand, bentonite, silicas, fluorite and barite. Industrial minerals have been extracted in Germany for hundreds of years in very diverse quantities.
Economic Importance
Apart from salts, the two most important industrial minerals in Germany in terms of volume are quartz sand/gravel and fine ceramic clay with production volumes of around 10.5 million tonnes and about 2.6 million tonnes respectively in 2022. In 2022, the total value of the industrial minerals extracted in Germany was around €278 million.
Extraction
The extraction of industrial minerals in Germany is extremely regional in structure, due to natural conditions. While, for example, kaolin is produced in Bavaria and Saxony and silica in Bavaria, the extraction of special clay is mainly concentrated in Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. Apart from salts, industrial minerals in Germany are mainly mined above ground by small and medium-sized enterprises. In contrast, fluorite and barite are also mined underground. In Germany, industrial minerals are extracted at around 200 extraction sites, although this number varies slightly each year.
Uses
Due to their chemical and physical properties, industrial minerals are mainly used in the paper, chemical, glass, ceramic, refractory, foundry and steel industries. However, the pharmaceutical industry, environmental management (exhaust gas purification, wastewater treatment plants, solar panel and wind turbine plants) and the automotive industry also use industrial minerals.
Iron ore
In Germany, iron ore is mined in North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt. The iron ores extracted here are not smelted into iron, however; they are used mostly in the form of crushed stone, chippings and brittle sands as a coloured and iron-rich aggregate for the concrete or cement industry. Germany’s requirement for iron ore to produce pig iron is covered entirely through imports. In 2022 and 2023, the figure was around 35 million tonnes6, 11% less than in 2021. In 2022 and 2023, the ore came primarily from Brazil, Canada, the Republic of South Africa, Sweden and USA.
Sources
1 Federal Statistical Office (2023): Query export and import (foreign trade): Germany, years, commodity classification, GP2019 (4-digit). URL: https://www-genesis.destatis.de/genesis/online?operation=statistic&levelindex=0&levelid=1690546375737&code=51000&abreadcrumb (accessed 24 April 2024).
2 Federal Employment Agency (2024) for a detailed source reference, see final note i.
3 Bundesverband Mineralische Rohstoffe e.V. [Federal Association of Mineral Resources] (2023): Management Report for 2022/2023. URL: https://www.bv-miro.org/service/geschaeftsberichte/. p.18 (accessed 14 June 2024)
4 Bundesverband Baustoffe – Steine und Erden e.V. (German Building Materials Association – Quarried natural resources) (2022) Report on the “Demand for primary and secondary raw materials in the non-metallic minerals industry up to 2040 in Germany”. URL: https://www.baustoffindustrie.de/fileadmin/user_upload/bbs/Bilder/Aktuelles/2022-04-20_BBS_Rohstoffstudie_01_ONLINE.pdf (accessed 11 September 2023).
5 Bundesverband Baustoffe – Steine und Erden e.V. (2023): Steine Erden Zukunft – Annual Report 2024. URL: https://www.baustoffindustrie.de/gb24/konjunktur-rohstoffe (accessed 25 June 2024).
6 Data for 2023 are provisional, DESTATIS revision status 06/2024 for iron ore imports.