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Human History: Stone age, Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age.

Every year > 25,000 pounds (11.3 metric tons) of new non-fuel minerals must be provided for you, and each person in the US, to make the items that each of us use every day. Human History: Stone age, Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age.

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Human History: Stone age, Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age.

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  1. Every year > 25,000 pounds (11.3 metric tons) of new non-fuel minerals must be provided for you, and each person in the US, to make the items that each of us use every day.

  2. Human History: Stone age, Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. 7 metals of antiquity: Gold (8000 yra); copper (6200 yra); silver (6000 yra); lead (5500 yra); tin (3750 yra); iron (3500 yra); mercury (2750 yra)

  3. Copper – humans use 15.7 million metric tons each year!! 3 billion tons geologically available < 200 years left ?? Ex/ Bingham copper mine in Utah

  4. Indium (liquid crystal displays in cell phones). * Now ~$800/kg

  5. Europium – used for red phospor in color TVs and LCD screens. * No substitute, though prices ~$20,000/kg

  6. Erbium – used in all fiber-optic cables because of unique optical properties. * No good substitute.

  7. Cerium – used to polish almost all mirrors and lenses because of unique chemical and physical properties.

  8. Platinum – diesel catalytic converters. No good substitute. Rhodium – removing NOx emissions. No good substitute.

  9. Rare Earth elements like neodymium, samarium, gadolinium, dysprosium, and praseodymium * Used for high-performance permanent magnets in electronics, video games, military devices, disk drives, DVDs. No good substitutes. We import 100% of these! (75% from China)

  10. New York Times, Sept. 4, 2009 BEIJING – Chinese officials said on Thursday that they would not entirely ban exports on two minerals vital to manufacturing hybrid cars, cellphones, large wind turbines, missiles and computer monitors, although they would tightly regulate production. China produces more than 99 percent of the world’s supply of dysprosium and terbium, two rare minerals essential to recent breakthroughs in high-technology industries…….. Terbium “The move could have forced some factories to relocate to China.”

  11. U. S. Consumption of Minerals, as a % of world use.

  12. U.S. Imports of Minerals

  13. Estimated Lifetime of some Selected Minerals Assuming 2009 Rates of Consumption (in thousands of metric tons) (http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/) Mineral Annual Reserves Estimated Resources Est. Lifetime Production Lifetime (yrs) (yrs) Arsenic 53.5 1,070 20 11,000 210 Bauxite 201,000 27,000,000 130 75,000,000 370 Cadmium 18.8 590 31 NA Chromium 23,000 350,000 15 12,000,000 520 Cobalt 62 6,600 110 15,000 240 Copper 15,800 540,000 34 3,000,000 190 Gold 2.35 47 20 NA Carbon (graphite) 1,130 71,000 63 800,000 700 Indium 0.6 6 10 NA Iron Ore 2,300,000 160,000,000 70 800,000,000 350 Lead 3,900 79,000 20 15,000,000 3800 Lithium 18 9,900 550 25,500 1400 Mercury 1.28 67 52 600 470 Nickel 1,430 71,000 50 130,000 91 Platinum Group 0.4 71 180 100 250 Rare Earths 124 99,000 800 NA Silver 21.4 400 19 NA Titanium 5,720 730,000 130 2,000,000 350 Tungsten 58 2,800 48 NA Zinc 11,100 200,000 18 1,900,000 170

  14. Minerals need to be naturally concentrated by geologic processes to be economically mined. (Of course, this depends on the $$) Ex/ gold = 3 parts per billion (0.0000003%) of Earth’s crust 1 wedding band = 3000 TONS of crust!

  15. Why is all the copper along the western coast? Why is there gold in California and Alaska, but not in Florida?

  16. Mid-Ocean Ridge Thermal Vents

  17. Hydrothermal circulation concentrates certain minerals and ores.

  18. This hasn’t occurred on any other planet in the solar system!

  19. Erosion can also help concentrate minerals to economic levels…

  20. Diamonds: Only form naturally more than 150 km beneath the surface! Kimberlite explosions don’t happen any more!

  21. Important Resource: Water

  22. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1268, "Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000."

  23. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1268, "Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000."

  24. Per capita per day water use, USA • 100 gallons personal (2 bathtubs) • (1000 gallons total) • Food production • Pound of rice • 250-600 gallons • ¼ pound hamburger meat • 3000 gallons • 1 liter of water • 27 liters (1 + 26 for production of bottle!) • And 1 liter of gasoline • And 0.5 kg CO2

  25. 1/6 – 1/3 world’s population: • No clean drinking water • 3.3 million deaths/yr • Major rivers don’t make it to ocean • Colorado, Rio Grande

  26. UN: In 2050, 2 - 7 billion human beings may experience chronic water shortages • “If the wars of this (20th) century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water” (Ismail Seregeddin, vice president, World Bank; 1995)

  27. Most of the western US gets very little rainfall…….

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