 The first I would like to introduce to you is a scholar, a scholar who has worked for 40 years on these subjects, much before they became popular. And that is Philippe, who is with us. And Philippe Chemin is a professor at Université Paris Dauphin. He is author of 40 books on economic issues. And he is the founder and head of Suclop. And Suclop has this handbook out every year since 36 years. And it's a documentation, a handbook on the latest developments in the field of commodities and raw materials. So there is hardly a better expert on this issue in Europe than Philippe. Philippe Chemin, the floor is yours. Well, thanks very much. I'll try to be as short as possible. Do you know, by the way, which is a commodity which has had the steepest rise in prices in 2022? It's not natural gas. It's lithium. A ton of lithium carbonate today cost around $80,000 when two years ago it was between $10,000 and $15,000, multiplied by $7,000 to $8,000. If you take nickel, you spoke about nickel. Nickel in the early days of March this year, it jumped for some time at $100,000 per ton. And another mineral which is important in the same field of electric batteries, of course, graphite. One doesn't speak much about graphite. Its price has risen by 30% only in 2022. All this, of course, is linked to energy transition needs. And that's why we speak now of a new category which we call CRM, critical raw materials. In Cyclope, we have devoted a chapter on what we call electric materials, where we do put lithium, cobalt, graphite, and some other. What is a critical raw material? It's definitely a material which is strategic for economic development. And, of course, it depends on technologies. So if we had that classification some years or centuries ago, it would have been very different. For example, the critical raw materials in the antiquity was tin, because tin and copper, you made bronze. And with that, you could make arms. But at the end of the 19th century, tin was still critical raw materials, because with that, you were making tin plates. And tin plate was very useful to manufacture the boxes in order to keep food. And, by the way, the first contract on the London metallic change at the end of the 19th century was not copper, it was tin. Now it's very clear that critical raw materials, you find them in electronics and batteries and so on. By the way, tin is back right now, because it's used for electronic soldering in the chip industry. Today, when we look at critical raw materials, of course you have all what is needed for batteries, that is lithium, cobalt, graphite, nickel. I would probably add rare earth, which are used in wind technologies, platinum in hydrogen, and some others. By the way, the extraordinary thing with energy transition is that everything was decided without a sort of what could be purchased planning. We love all solar energy, for example, but so far 80% of solar panels are coming from China with ceilisium being the big problem. It was more or less the same thing for electric batteries, and I remember about 10 years ago when a French company was developing a flit in Paris of electric vehicles to hire, they later contacted me, where could we find some lithium? That was the question. Today, if you just look at batteries, which are probably the hottest product at the moment, for cathode, lithium, if I take the consumption, the demand in 2022 today, and the demand which is forecasted for 2030, the needs for lithium should be multiplied by 490%. For graphite, it should be 554%. If you go on the other side for the anode, the needs for cobalt, 172% more, and nickel only 96%. But when you think about electricity, to carry electricity, you need, of course, copper, and you see that, in fact, even old metals are now the very hot commodities. In fact, we are facing two problems. The problem of reserves is not really a problem. When we speak about lithium, the production of equivalent lithium metal is today 100,000 tons. There are 22 million tons of reserves. Same for cobalt, same for rare earth. Rare earth, the production today is around a bit less than 300,000 tons, and reserves are 120 million tons. The problem is not there. The problem is mining, and mining with the dependency on some areas. 50% of the reserves of lithium are in the triangle of lithium, Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. 60% of cobalt is in the Democratic Putin-Tutun bracket, Republic of Congo. And when you look at platinum, at palladium, vanadium, you look at Russia and South Africa. It's clear that on the mining side we have a problem which is today not enough mining investment. We should have, on the overall mining industry, around 160 billion of investment dollars of investment each year. Last year, well, last year, which has been completed, that is in 2020, world investment in mining was only 80 billion dollars. So half what should be needed. And you know, as I do, that in many countries it's very difficult to open a mine. To open a mine in Europe is a problem. The biggest reserve and potential producer of lithium in Europe should be Serbia. And for the moment, everything is closed. In France, we just discovered some lithium. But before exploiting it, we'll have to have all the green hurdles that you can imagine. So it's really, in many countries, very, very difficult to open a mine. By the way, the Greens love to put us on electric vehicles, but they don't want us to produce lithium. Try to see if there is not a problem in their mind. But mining is one thing. Metallurgy is another thing. You have the mineral. You have to transform it into a usable product. For a long time, rare earths were not rare. And the center of rare earths metallurgy, by the way, was in France. Today, we have all exported. We have delocalized our environmental problems. And of course, rare earths, you know now, is about 80% produced in China. When you look at the position of China, by the way, as far as metallurgy is concerned, today, China produces 60% of lithium-bite carbonate, or hydroxide, 65% of cobalt metal, 70% of graphite, and only 30% of nickel. So, what kind of solutions can we have? It's clear that today, all car manufacturers are trying to build joint venture, General Motors has one with Vale for nickel, with lithium. Tesla has just taken some participation in New Caledonia. It was even said that Tesla could buy a minority stake in Glencore, the world's biggest miner and trader in minerals. Of course, we have the possibility of developing recycling, which will be important. Remember that for normal cars, which are with lead batteries, more than 60% of world lead is secondary lead that is recycled one. But, in fact, it's clear that we are facing potential deficits in the origin of 2030-2040. And that will be perhaps for lithium, perhaps for cobalt, more certainly for more basic products, like copper or tin. And, in fact, we are back to antiquity, to the time when copper plus tin were making bronze. Your German, both of you, remember that the copper trade made the fortune of Austria, of the Asberg monarchy and the Fugertrade Company. What is important to my mind, and I will conclude on that, is that it's important. What is strategic? It's important to anticipate and to plan. I will give you an example of a perfect irrational decision. The decision by the European Parliament to ban all gasoline and diesel-powered cars by 2035. It's stupid. It's counterproductive, both on the fact that we don't have enough lithium on that origin. The time of mining, it takes 10, 15 years, so we will lack the production of lithium necessary, and we will probably have some problem for cobalt and others. And, by the way, all those electric cars will be run by power, which will be perhaps derived from coal. Just to finish, remember that quotation from a French poet, Eluard was saying that you should never look at the past with today's eyes. You must not imagine the future with today's technologies. Thank you very much, Philippe. I wish my kids could study in Paris, Dauphine, and hear you with so much power and so much clearness. Very great introduction.