Transcript C25_Resources

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 ~$800/kg
Europium – used for red phospor in color TVs and LCD screens.
* No substitute, though prices ~$20,000/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……..
Terbium
“The move could have
forced some factories to
relocate to China.”
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)
(http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/)
Mineral
Annual
Production
Reserves
Arsenic
Bauxite
Cadmium
Chromium
Cobalt
Copper
Gold
Carbon (graphite)
Indium
Iron Ore
Lead
Lithium
Mercury
Nickel
Platinum Group
Rare Earths
Silver
Titanium
Tungsten
Zinc
53.5
201,000
18.8
23,000
62
15,800
2.35
1,130
0.6
2,300,000
3,900
18
1.28
1,430
0.4
124
21.4
5,720
58
11,100
1,070
27,000,000
590
350,000
6,600
540,000
47
71,000
6
160,000,000
79,000
9,900
67
71,000
71
99,000
400
730,000
2,800
200,000
Estimated
Lifetime (yrs)
Resources
20
130
31
15
110
34
20
63
10
70
20
550
52
50
180
800
19
130
48
18
11,000
75,000,000
NA
12,000,000
15,000
3,000,000
NA
800,000
NA
800,000,000
15,000,000
25,500
600
130,000
100
NA
NA
2,000,000
NA
1,900,000
Est. Lifetime
(yrs)
210
370
520
240
190
700
350
3800
1400
470
91
250
350
170
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!
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
U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1268, "Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000."
U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1268, "Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000."
• 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
• 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, 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)
Most of the western US gets very little rainfall…….