Mineral resource exhaustion is just a myth: study
Friday, April 28, 2017 - 06:01
in Earth & Climate
Recent articles have declared that deposits of raw mineral materials (copper, zinc, etc.) will be exhausted within a few decades. An international team including the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, has shown that this is incorrect and that the resources of most mineral commodities are sufficient to meet the growing demand from industrialization and future demographic changes. Future shortages will arise not from physical exhaustion of metals but from causes related to industrial exploitation, the economy, and environmental or societal pressures on the use of mineral resources. The report can be read in the journal Geochemical Perspectives.