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 we use.

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)

Annual Global Consumption of Resources (Stuff!)

In 2011, the number of cars on roads, globally, exceeded one billion! How many and what different materials were needed to make the early cars at the start of the 20 th century? Answer: 5 (wood, rubber, glass, steel, brass)

In 2011, the number of cars on roads, globally, exceeded one billion! How many and what different materials were needed to make the early cars at the start of the 20 th century?

How many different materials are now needed to make cars?

Answer: More than 40 different minerals and metals (plus multiple plastics, organic materials, glasses, etc.)

1. Crystallization from magma Ex/ Many minerals and rocks (granite, pumice)

2. Precipitation out of water Ex/ Salts, gypsum, amethyst, opal, turquoise, limestone

3. Sedimentation processes Ex/ Sandstone, shale, limestone

3. Precipitation out of hot fluids near magma, often associated with precipitation of quartz veins (pegmatites) Ex/ Metal ores (gold, silver, copper, etc.), sapphire, emerald, tourmaline

4. Crystallize within preexisting gas bubbles of volcanic rocks Ex/ Zircon, topaz, ruby

5. Formation at high pressures Ex/ Marble, slate, diamond, garnet

6. Alteration of other minerals by weathering Ex/ clay, iron and aluminum oxides

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

The first cell phone, 1973, weighed 2.5 pounds, could run for 30 minutes, and took 2.5 hours to recharge. What are some of the materials needed to make a modern cell phone?

Cell phone electronics require many elements such as copper, gold, palladium, platinum, silver, tungsten…. (these are expensive!)

The electronics use 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)

The receiver and amplifier use arsenic and gallium. We import 100% of arsenic (Morocco, China, Belgium…) and 99% of gallium (Germany, Canada, UK, China…)

The casing contains magnesium compounds. We import most of these (China, Canada, Brazil, Austria…)

The battery is made of Lithium. The largest exporter of lithium is one big salt flat in the Atacama desert at the top of the Andes Mountains.

Lithium plant at Salar de Uyuni

Indium (liquid crystal displays in cell phones). * Now ~$800/kg We import 100% (China, Canada, Japan, Belgium)

Europium – used for red phosphor in old color TVs and LCD screens. * No good substitute as a phosphor, though prices ~$20,000/kg

Erbium – used in all fiber-optic cables because of unique optical properties. (Also used to make pink-tinted sunglasses!) * No good substitute.

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

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

Lanthanum - It is usually the “metal” in a “nickel-metal hydride” battery, such as what is used in the battery for the Toyota Prius. (That’s my car! A blue Prius)

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

U.S. Imports of Minerals

Map of global net metal imports

Map of global mineral depletion

Estimated Lifetime of some Selected Minerals Assuming 2009 Rates of Consumption (in thousands of metric tons) ( MineralAnnual ReservesEstimated Resources Est. Lifetime ProductionLifetime (yrs) (yrs) Arsenic , , Bauxite 201,000 27,000, ,000, Cadmium NA Chromium 23, , ,000, Cobalt 62 6, , Copper 15, , ,000, Gold NA Carbon (graphite) 1,130 71, , Indium NA Iron Ore2,300, ,000, ,000, Lead 3,900 79, ,000, Lithium 18 9, , Mercury Nickel 1,430 71, , Platinum Group Rare Earths , NA Silver NA Titanium 5, , ,000, Tungsten 58 2, NA Zinc 11, , ,900,000170

Estimated Lifetime of some Selected Minerals Assuming 2009 Rates of Consumption (in thousands of metric tons) ( MineralAnnual ReservesEstimated Resources Est. Lifetime ProductionLifetime (yrs) (yrs) Arsenic , , Bauxite 201,000 27,000, ,000, Cadmium NA Chromium 23, , ,000, Cobalt 62 6, , Copper 15, , ,000, Gold NA Carbon (graphite) 1,130 71, , Indium NA Iron Ore2,300, ,000, ,000, Lead 3,900 79, ,000, Lithium 18 9, , Mercury Nickel 1,430 71, , Platinum Group Rare Earths , NA Silver NA Titanium 5, , ,000, Tungsten 58 2, NA Zinc 11, , ,900, This does NOT mean that we will run out of any of these minerals or metals in your lifetimes: we will continue to explore and find more. HOWEVER, new resources will be harder to find, harder to extract, have greater environmental impacts, and THE PRICES WILL GO UP!

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 ( %) of Earth’s crust 1 wedding band = 3000 TONS of crust! How do rocks and minerals form?

Global Map of Copper Deposits Why is there all this copper along the western coast of the Americas? Why is there gold in California and Alaska, but not in Florida?

Mid-Ocean Ridge Thermal Vents

Hydrothermal circulation concentrates certain minerals and ores.

Erosion can also help concentrate minerals to economic levels…

Global Map of Gold Deposits

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

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…….. “The move could have forced some factories to relocate to China.” Terbium

US Water Usage

U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1268, "Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000."Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000 The US use of water has leveled off, even though populations have continued to increase

U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1268, "Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000."Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000 …this is due to improvements in water use efficiency for agriculture, power plants, and awareness of water conservation

Per capita per day water use, USA –100 gallons personal (2 bathtubs) – (1000 gallons total) Rank, in order, the personal water uses in the US: –Drinking water –Taking baths –Taking showers –Washing clothes –Washing up (dishes, etc.) –Flushing toilets

Personal Water Use

Food production –Pound of rice gallons –¼ pound hamburger meat 3000 gallons –1 liter of “Fiji” water 27 liters ( for production of bottle!) And 1 liter of gasoline And 0.5 kg CO 2

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

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

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

Map of Water Scarcity

Map of Groundwater Stress (how much faster the water is being withdrawn than is being recharged)

Rate of Groundwater depletion (black = 1 m/yr)

Very positive future solution: Desalination (map of current global use)

Desalination: Distillation

Desalination: Reverse Osmosis (Barcelona, Spain)

Desalination: Reverse Osmosis

Desalination: Hadera Plant (Israel) Costs have come down considerably – about cents/gal (too expensive for agriculture, but not personal use) (Environmental issues with salt that is left over)