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. 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)

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

Indium (liquid crystal displays in cell phones). * Now $685/kg

Europium – used for red phospor in color TVs and LCD screens. * No substitute, though prices > $2000/kg

Erbium – used in all fiber-optic cables because of unique optical properties. * 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.

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)

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

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

U.S. Imports of Minerals

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

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!

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

Mid-Ocean Ridge Thermal Vents

Hydrothermal circulation concentrates certain minerals and ores.

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

Erosion can also help concentrate minerals to economic levels…

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

Important Resource: Water

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

Soil Resources: Soil Loss

Soil Conservation