Minerals/table
< Minerals
| Mining | Recycling | ||||||||||
| Mineral | Labor intensity (hours/tonne) |
Energy intensity (GJ/tonne) |
Land intensity (m2/tonne) |
Global production (tonnes/year) |
Global reserves (tonnes) |
Global resources (tonnes) |
Note | Labor intensity (hours/tonne) |
Energy intensity (GJ/tonne) |
Global production (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) | 69 million[1] | 16 billionGlobal 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.[1] |
In 2022, aluminum recovered from purchased scrap in the United States was about 3.4 million tons, of which about 56% came from new (manufacturing) scrap and 44% from old scrap (discarded aluminum products). Aluminum recovered from old scrap was equivalent to about 29% of apparent consumption.[1] | ||||||||
| Cement | 4.1 billion | ||||||||||
| Chromium (Cr) | 41 million[1] | 560 million[1] | |||||||||
| Cobalt (Co) | 190 thousand | 8.3 million | 25 million | ||||||||
| Copper (Cu) | |||||||||||
| Graphite (C) | |||||||||||
| Iron (Fe) | |||||||||||
| Lead (Pb) | |||||||||||
| Lithium (Li) | |||||||||||
| Nickel (Ni) | |||||||||||
| PGMs Platinum-group metals (Pt, Pd, Rh, Ir, Ru, Os) | |||||||||||
| Sand | |||||||||||
| Silver (Ag) | |||||||||||
| Thorium (Th) | |||||||||||
| Uranium (U) | The energy density of uranium is much higher, at 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. | ||||||||||
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 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