You know peak oil? Well, get ready for peak minerals.

Everything you own is grown or mined. As we all know, stuff that's grown can be regrown most of the time. Stuff that's mined, not so much.

We've talked a lot on this blog about peak oil: the phenomenon where oil production has peaked. Supply will go down, but demand will continue to increase, and the price of oil will continue to skyrocket. Oil is a finite resource, and we've sucked the easiest deposits to access dry.

But oil is only one of the riches we pull from the Earth. The US Geological Survey estimates that in order "to maintain our standard of living, each person in the United States requires over 48,000 pounds of minerals each year:

• 12,428 lb. of stone
• 9,632 lb. of sand and gravel
• 940 lb. of cement
• 276 lb. of clays
• 400 lb. of salt
• 302 lb. phosphate rock
• 639 lb. of nonmetals
• 425 lb. of iron ore
• 77 lb. of bauxite (aluminum)
• 17 lb. of copper
• 11 lb. of lead
• 10 lb. of zinc
• 6 lb. of manganese
• .0285 T oz. gold
• 29 lb. of other metals
• 7,667 lb. petroleum
• 7,589 lb. coal
• 6,866 natural gas
• 1/3 lb. uranium"

Wow. That's an unbelievable amount of stuff.

But more remarkable still is the list of things that we're running out of. If we keep mining at present levels, here are the estimated dates until we run out of some of these minerals:

• indium(used in lcd monitors): 4-13 years
• silver: 9-29 years
• lead: 8-42 years
• antimony(used in pharmaceutical drugs): 13-30 years
• tin: 17-40 years
• uranium: 19-59
• zinc: 34-46 years
• gold: 36-45 years
• copper(wire, plumbing, pennies): 38-61 years
• nickel: 57-90 years

Even aluminum, the single most plentiful metal in the Earth's crust, only has 510-1027 years to go.

Yet another argument for recycling. As if you needed more reasons beyond the energy and greenhouse gas savings, right?

Read more at NewScientist.

Comments

[Prof. Goose]

Great piece. I would suggest for even more facts and figures that you check out this piece over at The Oil Drum:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3086

Good work. Drop me a note at the TOD inbox if you would.

[arduous]

silver? really? wow ... my jewelry is going to be worth a LOT in 10 years....