Minerals/table

From the change wiki
[''']- Sources cited in table headings are the default sources, cited unless otherwise specified.
- Table text is right-justified to make it easier to compare numbers visually. 		Mining Recycling
Mineral Labor
intensity[1]
(hours/tonne) 		Energy
intensity
(GJ/tonne) 		Land
intensity
(m2/tonne) 		Global
production[2]
(tonnes/year) 		Global
reserves[2]
(tonnes) 		Global
resources[2]
(tonnes) 		Note Labor
intensity
(hours/tonne) 		Energy
intensity
(GJ/tonne) 		Global
production[2]
(tonnes/year) 		Global
presence[''']Defined as: The total amount ever mined to date. This could theoretically be seen as a "resource" to eventually recycle.
(tonnes)
Aluminium (Al) 200 [3] : 61 69,000,000 [''']Global resources of bauxite are estimated to be between 55 billion and 75 billion (metric) tons and are sufficient to meet world demand for metal well into the future. ... As a general rule, 4 tons of dried bauxite is required to produce 2 tons of alumina, which, in turn, can be used to produce 1 ton of aluminum. : 16,000,000,000
Cement 4,100,000,000 [''']Cement also has non-energy-related CO2 emissions:
0.81 tonnes CO2 per tonne cement.

Also note that concrete is about 15% cement by mass; the rest is sand, rocks, and steel rebar.
Chromium (Cr) 41,000,000 560,000,000
Cobalt (Co) [4][''']If this was instead estimated the 'default' way (from mineral prices), it would be 2,974 hours/tonne. But that's likely an underestimate because most cobalt comes from the Congo where wages are much lower than the "$4/hour average wage" used in estimating labor from mineral prices. : 4,094 190,000 8,300,000 25,000,000 [5][''']Particles emitted during cobalt mining consists radioactive emissions, cancer-causing particles, and particles which may cause vision problems, vomiting and nausea, heart problems, and Thyroid damage. Cobalt is an important gamma-ray source which is used as a radio therapeutic agent for cancer treatment (Baskar, Lee, Yeo, & Yeoh, 2012).
Copper (Cu) 757 [6] : 12 22,000,000 890,000,000 [''']A U.S. Geological Survey study of global copper deposits indicated that, as of 2015, identified resources contained 2.1 billion tons of copper, and undiscovered resources contained an estimated 3.5 billion tons. : 3,000,000,000
Gold (Au) 4,935,542 3,100 52,000 [''']15,000 discovered + 18,000 undiscovered
Not sure why this is lower than reserves : 33,000
Graphite (C) 1,300,000 330,000,000 800,000,000
Iron (Fe) 50 [7][''']per steel production : 20 1,600,000,000 85,000,000,000 230,000,000,000
Lead (Pb) 168 4,500,000 85,000,000 2,000,000,000
Lithium (Li) 5,724 [''']Alternative estimate: 407 m^2/tonne, from The high-altitude basin contains around 40 per cent of the world's lithium reserves in about 3000 square kilometres. - New Scientist - Drought, not lithium mining, is drying out Chile's largest salt flat - https://www.newscientist.com/article/2345815-drought-not-lithium-mining-is-drying-out-chiles-largest-salt-flat/[8] : 58 130,000 26,000,000 98,000,000
Nickel (Ni) 2,189 3,300,000 100,000,000 300,000,000
Oil 48 [9] : 6 [10] : 5,064,140,000 [10] : 235,838,240,000
PGMs [''']Platinum-group metals (Pt, Pd, Rh, Ir, Ru, Os) [''']based on a 50/50 average of platinum and palladium prices : 3,237,432 400 70,000 100,000
Salt (NaCl) 290,000,000
Sand 380,000,000
Silver (Ag) 58,236 26,000 550,000
Thorium (Th) [''']Production and reserves are associated with the recovery of monazite in heavy-mineral-sand deposits. Without demand for the rare earths, monazite likely would not be recovered for its thorium content under current market conditions. 6,400,000 [''']If breeder reactors succeed as a technology, thorium could offer a lot more energy than it takes to mine it.

Additional thorium resources could maybe be obtained from ordinary dirt, but we don't know yet whether this would really be viable: The labor/energy/land intensity of this option is still unknown.[RESEARCH needed] Average soil concentration of thorium is (6 ppm).[11]
Uranium (U) 9,517 [12] : 8,070,000 [''']Uranium offers a lot more energy than it takes to mine it. The energy density of uranium is 574699 GJ/tonne for conventional nuclear reactors, and 82099829 GJ/tonne as a theoretical maximum for breeder reactors.

Uranium occurs in nature as a mix of two isotopes: U235 (0.7%) and U238 (99.3%). Conventional nuclear reactors can only make use of the U235 component.
  1. ↑ Estimated from the market prices of minerals (unless otherwise specified) (www.dailymetalprice.com - Feb 17, 2023 - although ideally it would be better to use prices averaged over a year or two), using very simplified assumptions: global average wages of $4/hour; wages account for 1/3 of the mineral's market price. These assumptions are far from perfect, so if you know of more accurate data on the labor-intensity of any mineral, please post it in the discussion and we can fit it in the table.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Mineral Commodity Summaries 2023: U.S. Geological Survey, ISSN: 0076-8952 (print), https://doi.org/10.3133/mcs2023 - https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2023/mcs2023.pdf
  3. ↑ Aluminum Production - an overview - ScienceDirect Topics - www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/aluminum-production
  4. ↑ Estimated as follows:
    congo.cobalt_miners
    255000
    Number of people working in cobalt mines in the Congo
    The DRC Mining Industry: Child Labor and Formalization of ...
    Of the 255,000 Congolese mining for cobalt, 40,000 are children, some as young as six years.
    congo.cobalt_production
    130000 tonnes/year
    Amount of cobalt produced from mining in the Congo
    Mineral Commodity Summaries 2023
    full_time
    40 hours/week
    Due to lack of better data, we just have to we assume that the average miner works this many hours. Some maybe work more, some maybe work less.

    congo.cobalt_miners * full_time / congo.cobalt_productionhours/tonne(calculation loading) The Democratic Republic of Congo produces most of the world's cobalt, so it's reasonable to use this country for the calculation.

  5. ↑ Life cycle assessment of cobalt extraction process - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsm.2019.03.002 - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2300396018301836
  6. ↑ Energy efficiency - Energy intensity in copper and gold mining - https://www.at-minerals.com/en/artikel/at_-3001684.html
  7. ↑ Material and energy flows of the iron and steel industry - ScienceDirect - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626192030458X
  8. ↑ The most accessible and easy to extract resource only contains 1.9 Mt of lithium, spread out over 1,100 square kilometers of the salt body. - TheDialogue - Energy Advisor - Is Chile Losing Ground to Other Lithium Producers? - https://www.thedialogue.org/analysis/is-chile-losing-ground-to-other-lithium-producers/
  9. ↑ Estimated from Alberta oil sands (Canada): ...140,000 km2 oil sands deposit in Northern Alberta... Using currently available technology and under the current economic conditions, there are 165 billion barrels of remaining established reserves in the oil sands deposits of Northern Alberta. Oil sands 101 - Alberta.ca - https://www.alberta.ca/oil-sands-101.aspx
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Feb 17, 2023 - World Oil Statistics - Worldometer - https://www.worldometers.info/oil/
  11. ↑ Toxicological Profile for Thorium - https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp147-c5.pdf
  12. ↑ Uranium 2020: Resources, Production and Demand ('Red Book') The total recoverable identified resources to $260/kg U is 8.070 million tonnes U.
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