Article 225 - Status of the Mineral Resources of the Earth 2017
Status of the Mineral Resources of the Earth 2017
Humans use minerals from the Earth for energy and products.
The mineral resources are a limited supply.
The status and depletion of this resource can be examined.
The Production; the extraction amount for each mineral; can be established.
The Resource amount; the natural amount of each material available; can be established.
The Peak Year; the year at which the extraction, demand and supply ability all converge for each mineral can be established.
The Depletion Year; the year at which each mineral resource runs out; can be established.
Mineral extraction and production is fundamentally dependent on the use of fossil fuels.
The same set of data as established for minerals can also be established for all fossil fuels.
The fossil fuel phase out dates can also be added to the data.
A table of the minerals of the Earth in terms of Production Rates, Resource Duration Rates, Peak Years, Depletion Years and Fossil Fuel Phase Out Years can be created.
A timeline of depletion can be established.
Conclusions
The initial depletion of silver in 2017 and then gold in 2033 will change the world financial economy radically and switch it over to renewable resources of both minerals.
Copper; as smelting copper, refined copper or ore; depletes in 2046, 2059 and 2064.
The depletion of silver, gold and copper resources between 2017 and 2064 will make the creation of electrical systems; including renewables; more difficult.
The phasing out of fossil fuels from 2050 to 2100 will remove all of the potential mineral mining ability.
The peak year of crude petroleum comes just after the initial copper peak year in 2038 and just before the copper ore depletion year in 2064. So mining more minerals after this date becomes more difficult.
The depletion of the oil industry initially allows the phase out of fossil fuels to assist in the reduction in output of greenhouse gases and in slowing down global warming. There is also an economic effect in that the reduction in petroleum use removes some 6,000 products and their manufacture from the global consumerist economy. Petroleum products also include anaesthetics and medicines and so new forms of these will be needed after the year 2038.
The end of natural gas reserves between 2041 and 2067 and the end of coal reserves between 2070 and 2125 add to the problems of energy provision for the Earth.
By the year 2100 all fossil fuels will be phased out.
Based on 2017 energy use data from the CIA World fact book 2017 the phasing out of fossil fuels amounts to a loss of total installed electrical generating capacity of some 64.2% globally.
Post the year 2125 the extraction of minerals at current levels therefore becomes almost impossible.
Mineral extraction amounts to 92% of total global waste.
Source: http://bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/statistics/worldstatistics.html
The current global total of mineral waste is 19,965,729,588 tonnes. Approx. 20,000,000,000 tonnes.
Once mineral extraction ceases this would become the total available mineral resource for the whole Earth to be recycled until it to runs out.
The amount recycled currently can be considered to be 0% since the mineral resource has been extracted and formed into products.
Recycling of minerals and metals is taking place but; in accordance with the laws of thermodynamics; more energy and so more material, is always put in than is retrieved. Eventually even the valuable mineral recycling resources will run out.
The nature of human existence on Earth from 2017 onwards from the data therefore necessarily involves less environmental use, less energy use and less resource use to allow human society to survive.
References.
USGS, BGS, Wikipedia, graphiteoneresource, indmin, Project MA.09160, Material Scarcity 2009
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Ian K Whittaker
Websites:
https://sites.google.com/site/architecturearticles
Email: iankwhittaker@gmail.com
02/09/2017
14/10/2020
751 words over 4 pages