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) | 69,000,000 [1] | 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 [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 | 4,100,000,000 [1] | ||||||||||
| Chromium (Cr) | 41,000,000 [1] | 560,000,000 [1] | |||||||||
| Cobalt (Co) | 190,000 [1] | 8,300,000 [1] | 25,000,000 [1] | ||||||||
| Copper (Cu) | 22,000,000 [1] | 890,000,000 [1] | 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 [1] |
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| Gold (Au) | 3,100 [1] | 52,000 [1] | 15,000 discovered + 18,000 undiscovered 33,000 [1] | ||||||||
| Graphite (C) | 1,300,000 [1] | 330,000,000 [1] | 800,000,000 [1] | ||||||||
| Iron (Fe) | 1,300,000,000 [1] | ||||||||||
| Lead (Pb) | 4,500,000 [1] | 85,000,000 [1] | 2,000,000,000 [1] | ||||||||
| Lithium (Li) | 130,000 [1] | 26,000,000 [1] | 98,000,000 [1] | ||||||||
| Nickel (Ni) | 3,300,000 [1] | 100,000,000 [1] | 300,000,000 [1] | ||||||||
| PGMs Platinum-group metals (Pt, Pd, Rh, Ir, Ru, Os) | 400 | 70,000 | 100,000 | ||||||||
| 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. | ||||||||||
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 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