Minerals/table
< Minerals
- 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 presenceDefined 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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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. |
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 2.0 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
- ↑ Aluminum Production - an overview - ScienceDirect Topics - www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/aluminum-production
- ↑ Estimated as follows:congo.cobalt_miners255000Number of people working in cobalt mines in the CongoThe 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_production130000 tonnes/yearAmount of cobalt produced from mining in the CongoMineral Commodity Summaries 2023full_time40 hours/weekDue 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.The Democratic Republic of Congo produces most of the world's cobalt, so it's reasonable to use this country for the calculation. (calculation loading)
- ↑ 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
- ↑ Energy efficiency - Energy intensity in copper and gold mining - https://www.at-minerals.com/en/artikel/at_-3001684.html
- ↑ Material and energy flows of the iron and steel industry - ScienceDirect - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626192030458X
- ↑
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/ - ↑
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 - ↑ 10.0 10.1 Feb 17, 2023 - World Oil Statistics - Worldometer - https://www.worldometers.info/oil/
- ↑ Toxicological Profile for Thorium - https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp147-c5.pdf
- ↑ Uranium 2020: Resources, Production and Demand ('Red Book')
The total recoverable identified resources to $260/kg U is 8.070 million tonnes U.