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An international team of researchers, led by the University of Delaware's Saleem Ali, says global resource governance and sharing of geoscience data is needed to address challenges facing future mineral supply.
Specifically of concern are a range of technology minerals, which are an essential ingredient in everything from laptops and cell phones to hybrid or electric cars to solar panels and copper wiring for homes. However, base metals like copper are also a matter of immense concern.
The research team, which included experts from academic, government and industrial institutions across five continents, the U.S., Europe, South Africa, Australia and South America, reported their findings today in a peer-reviewed paper in Nature.
"There are treaties on climate change, biodiversity, migratory species and even waste management of organic chemicals, but there is no international mechanism to govern how mineral supply should be coordinated," said Ali, the paper's lead author and Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and Environment at UD.
The researchers reviewed data and demand forecasts on the sustainability of global mineral supplies in coming decades. The study showed that mining exploration is not keeping up with future demand for minerals and recycling in and of itself would not be able to meet the demand either.
Saleem H. Ali, et al. Mineral supply for sustainable development requires resource governance. Nature, 2017; 543 (7645): 367 DOI: 10.1038/nature21359
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(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday March 27 2017, @03:00PM
Well gold isn't very useful, it's copper that is really useful for practical applications. The only thing gold is good for is corrosion resistance, so it's used for plating contacts. But gold-plated contacts today are pretty cheap, so there's no shortage of gold (thanks to gold's extreme malleability; it can be plated in ridiculously thin layers a few atoms thick). It's copper where we could really use an abundant, cheap source of it. The main use for gold is for either jewelry, or for stupid people to hoard thinking it's valuable (and mining tons of it from asteroids would immediately stop the latter because it'd crash the price).