Competition to secure critical minerals is intensifying with advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology and growth in the electric vehicle and semiconductor industries. As China weaponizes key resources such as rare earths amid U.S.-China tensions, "urban mining," which recovers metals from e-waste and used batteries, is drawing attention as a national strategic industry.
Urban mining is an industry that recovers copper, lead, lithium and more from waste resources generated in cities, such as discarded electronics, industrial waste and used batteries, and reuses them as raw materials. Compared with developing natural mines, securing feedstock is relatively easier, and it can both reduce waste and stabilize resource supply chains, making it a core pillar of the circular economy. For Korea, which relies on imports for 95% of its critical minerals, it is also a realistic alternative to secure strategic minerals domestically.
The market is growing rapidly. According to the industry, the e-waste market that supplies feedstock for urban mining is expected to grow from about $52.3 billion (about 75 trillion won) last year to about $93.1 billion in 2034.
The government is also fostering resource recovery as a pillar of the critical minerals supply chain. This year it created a "critical minerals resource recovery industry special classification," systematizing related businesses as an independent sector, and set a goal to meet 20% of demand for the 10 strategic critical minerals through resource recovery by 2030. Recently, together with SK Telecom(017670) and the other two domestic telecom operators, it began building a circular system to recover critical minerals from retired telecom equipment.
Corporations are building the urban mining ecosystem a step ahead of the government. Nonferrous metal companies are at the forefront. LS Group affiliate LS MnM acquired precious metal recycling company Toricom in 2008, and in 2011 established a recycling production facility in Danyang, North Chungcheong, creating a waste scrap–based metal recovery system.
Korea Zinc(010130) has operated an electronic scrap processing plant since 2012, recovering valuable metals from discarded electronics. In March, it agreed to pursue an urban mining project to extract rare earths from data center waste in cooperation with a U.S. big tech company.
Small and midsize corporations are underpinning the base of the urban mining industry. DS Dansuk(017860) built a secondary lead plant in Gunsan, North Jeolla, in 2011, launching a full-scale resource circulation business based on spent lead-acid batteries. Recently, it expanded into a valuable metal recovery business that extracts lead, silver and gold from metal process byproducts, and in March it also began producing precious metal alloy lead.
SungEel HiTech(365340) has established the entire process from preprocessing of spent lithium-ion batteries and battery scrap to hydrometallurgy, supplying the recovered metals to battery material companies.
Experts stress that it is time for the government to back the urban mining ecosystem institutionally. They say the industrial base should be strengthened through regulatory improvements and support for small and midsize corporations, and the urban mining supply chain should be advanced.
Hong Su-yeol, head of the Resource Circulation Society and Economy Research Institute, said, "For urban mining to take root as a pillar of the national critical minerals supply chain, supply chain policies to secure stable feedstock must proceed alongside technology development and facility investment," and added, "Korea must strengthen its domestic critical minerals supply chain to reduce reliance on overseas sources and raise self-sufficiency."