Metal Shortages Alert from Leading Geologists: Inexorable Demand for Consumer Goods Places Strain O

This is an interesting article found in ScienceDaily about the demand for certain types of metals.
www.sciencedaily.com...

Dr Jenkin said: "Mobile phones contain copper, nickel, silver and zinc, aluminium, gold, lead, manganese, palladium, platinum and tin. More than a billion people will buy a mobile in a year -- so that's quite a lot of metal. And then there's the neodymium in your laptop, the iron in your car, the aluminium in that soft drinks can -- the list goes on... "With ever-greater use of these metals, are we running out? That was one of the questions we addressed at our meeting. It is reassuring that there's no immediate danger of 'peak metal' as there's quite a lot in the ground, still -- but there will be shortages and bottlenecks of some metals like indium due to increased demand.

For those who dont know, Indium is used to coat the bearings of high speed motors since it allows for the even distribution of lubricating oil. Indium is used to dope germanium to make transistors. It is also used to make other electrical components such as rectifiers, thermistors and photoconductors. Indium can be used to make mirrors that are as reflective as silver mirrors but do not tarnish as quickly. Indium is also used to make low melting alloys.

So what do you think? Could this be a big problem in the near future?

I would have to find the link but the USGS said silver will become the first metal to go extinct.

Thats why i got me a butt load of silver in my safes.

reply to post by Veritas1


in the near future? no...

but in the far from near future...possibly...

there may be strain on industry to produce more of these metals...but as is said...there is plenty in the ground...many of which is still unexploited...just gotta go mine it...

It reminds me of something said by Michael Ruppert in a documentary called "Collapse". He talks about the coming collapse due to peak oil and fractional reserve banking and says something to the effect that we will experience more and more shortages of everyday items.

If you have not seen this movie, you nee need to.

In fact I am assigning homework.

my friend and I have a scrap metal side gig that we do for extra cash, and the most prices of metal per pound that the scrap yard pays you has been declining gradually ever since early September. We went in last week, and aluminum breakage went from sixty cents a pound to 40 cents a pound, and the guy at the scrap yard said he hadnt seen a drop in price like that since 97. Also, the price of #2 unprepared steel/iron has gone roughly from 165.00 a ton to 180.00 a ton, thats the only metal I've seen go up really. To me that speaks volumes. It seems as if something is going down in the metal world for sure.

reply to post by Veritas1


One of the reasons we are in Afghanistan for the long term is because of all the mineral deposits. One of the many reasons I might add.

There is an abundance. We will never run out.

curious... I read somewhere awhile ago China has oodles and oodles of metal just sitting around



Did a search...... HMMM

[link] China owns 90% of earth rare metals

China indeeddoes have an abundance of rare earths.....
However there are other sources too and there is some pretty intense explorations going on these days as well for these hard to find undustrial needs.
Nobody ever thought there were diamonds in north america either till recently....
There are rare earths in afghanistan i think as well as a mountain of iron the china has snatched onto...as they are being very dilligent in cultivating these himalayan countries .as well as occupying them (Tibet)
It is justa matter of time and well be past the need for some of these exotics i believe, as well delve deeper into quantum space.....we have to find the basic particles sooner or later.....

I cannot comment on metals but I wear a yellow topaz ring. It is my birthstone and used to represent something special. I still wear it but with a completely different sentiment. There is no more yellow topaz to be found anywhere on planet Earth. You will see a lot of blue 'created' topaz in the jewellery shops but rarely yellow topaz.

When one element can be mined to emptiness - why can't others? We have hunted animals to extinction - just check out the dead - stuffed and mounted versions in any museum.

I watched a trailer for a documentary recently where a whistleblower stated that the oil reserves on planet Earth are almost empty. He added that TPTB will not alert the populous to this fact. To me taking oil and metals and minerals is the same as taking the blood and other essential elements out of a human body - eventually it will bring about death.

Much Peace...

Here's a table to explain expected shortages based on possible and known reserves firstly:

According to the US Geological Survey, shortage of some of the world's rare earth metals (along with other metals) will be felt within 50 years of 2009. An overview:[57]
within 10 to 20 years: strontium, silver, antimony, gold, zinc, arsenic, tin, indium, zirconium, lead, cadmium, barium;
within 20 to 30 years: mercury, tungsten, copper, thallium, manganese, nickel;
within 30 to 40 years: molybdenum, rhenium, bismuth, yttrium, niobium;
within 40 to 50 years: iron.

Secondly: The drop in prices are not due to the resources being sparse, but the demand falling. The current economic situation in Europe, the States and now Asia is dim, thus causing uncertainty and thus a fall in demand. This is why prices are falling. Aluminum is used in a variety of things, including Cars, Planes and other such expensive consumer goods. Because these are not actually a necessity to the surprise of many, they aren't demanded as much and the demand falls. However steel will be needed forever due to the growing dependence on the material for structural foundations.

Now there are two general answers to the shortage:

Dig deeper - Find reserves deeper, with more pressure and danger with not as many yields however they are comparably easier to get to than asteroids.

Mine Asteroids - This is where most of the reserves on earth came from to begin with. After all the substance was swallowed into the magma core, the crust hardened and was bombarded by asteroids. The issue being that these are hard to get to and back from but the material gained would be insane.

So the answer is quite clear, in our steps to privatizing space, we need to set up a space industry such as mining. For example:
At 1997 prices, a relatively small metallic asteroid with a diameter of 1.6 km (0.99 mi) contains more than 20 trillion US dollars worth of industrial and precious metals.
OR
The asteroid 16 Psyche is believed to contain 1.7×1019 kg of nickel-iron, which could supply the 2004 world production requirement for several million years

Compared to hot and sweaty conditions underground, a robotic operation using a railgun or something to launch a reusable craft filled with supplies to and from the operation could supply earth with enough material to suffice. Without having to exhaust the land any further.

I was fiddling around with the reserve metals vs current extraction rate at usdebtclock.org and noticed many of the metals would be extracted within about 40 years.

I think it's a lot like oil, in that you don't have to wait for the last drop to be extracted before a collapse of industry would occur. My thinking is we've got until 2030 tops before the lights go out, but I actually think it will be sooner.

Ww3 will happen sometime thus decade, and whatever the outcome ends up being, the lights will go out for most of this world shortly after the dust settles.

Enjoy!

Collect old electronics/computer boards.

The transistors, diodes, and gold plated parts have more value than the dollars in your wallet right now.

The older the better. Lots of precious metals in those objects.

reply to post by Pervius


I have 100 units of metal. I use 50 for buildings and 50 for consumer products.

By the next generation I will have 50 (Give or take) units to use for both buildings and consumer products. The issue with recycling is that it will help but no where near resolve the issue as the life span of a lot of the uses, car batteries, hydrogen cells, solar power panels had long life spans. Sure mobile phones have short life spans these days to keep the economy going but it's not at all enough to feed the machine.

Better start recycling then. The only problem is that a lot of recycling technologies use a lot of energy to use; so maybe we should also find an enormous energy source. Mining lower grade ores also needs more energy. We could also use things more efficiently - which would offset the higher cost from lower grade ores.

Also remember that known supplies of metals expands over time. Known uranium reserves have doubled since 1990.

I know we have the option of incoming or close asteroids to mine but that sounds tricky and utterly haphazard, but the reality of theworld running out of certain metals is really scary. We are either going to have to make brilliant synthetics or the future looks horrendous for our kids while we juggle our replacement technology with our old.