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Every year > 25,000 pounds (11.3 metric tons) of new non-fuel minerals must be provided for you, and each person in the US, to make the items that we use.

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Human History: Stone age, Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. 7 metals of antiquity: Gold (8000 yra); copper (6200 yra); silver (6000 yra); lead (5500 yra); tin (3750 yra); iron (3500 yra); mercury (2750 yra)

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Annual Global Consumption of Resources (Stuff!)

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In 2011, the number of cars on roads, globally, exceeded one billion! How many and what different materials were needed to make the early cars at the start of the 20 th century? Answer: 5 (wood, rubber, glass, steel, brass)

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In 2011, the number of cars on roads, globally, exceeded one billion! How many and what different materials were needed to make the early cars at the start of the 20 th century?

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How many different materials are now needed to make cars?

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Answer: More than 40 different minerals and metals (plus multiple plastics, organic materials, glasses, etc.)

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1. Crystallization from magma Ex/ Many minerals and rocks (granite, pumice)

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2. Precipitation out of water Ex/ Salts, gypsum, amethyst, opal, turquoise, limestone

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3. Sedimentation processes Ex/ Sandstone, shale, limestone

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3. Precipitation out of hot fluids near magma, often associated with precipitation of quartz veins (pegmatites) Ex/ Metal ores (gold, silver, copper, etc.), sapphire, emerald, tourmaline

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4. Crystallize within preexisting gas bubbles of volcanic rocks Ex/ Zircon, topaz, ruby

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5. Formation at high pressures Ex/ Marble, slate, diamond, garnet

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6. Alteration of other minerals by weathering Ex/ clay, iron and aluminum oxides

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Copper humans use 15.7 million metric tons each year!! 3 billion tons geologically available < 200 years left ?? Ex/ Bingham copper mine in Utah

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The first cell phone, 1973, weighed 2.5 pounds, could run for 30 minutes, and took 2.5 hours to recharge. What are some of the materials needed to make a modern cell phone?

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Cell phone electronics require many elements such as copper, gold, palladium, platinum, silver, tungsten. (these are expensive!)

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The electronics use Rare Earth elements like neodymium, samarium, gadolinium, dysprosium, and praseodymium * Used for high-performance permanent magnets in electronics, video games, military devices, disk drives, DVDs. No good substitutes. We import ~100% of these! (75% from China)

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The receiver and amplifier use arsenic and gallium. We import 100% of arsenic (Morocco, China, Belgium) and 99% of gallium (Germany, Canada, UK, China)

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The casing contains magnesium compounds. We import most of these (China, Canada, Brazil, Austria)

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The battery is made of Lithium. The largest exporter of lithium is one big salt flat in the Atacama desert at the top of the Andes Mountains.

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Lithium plant at Salar de Uyuni

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Indium (liquid crystal displays in cell phones). * Now ~$800/kg We import 100% (China, Canada, Japan, Belgium)

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Europium used for red phosphor in old color TVs and LCD screens. * No good substitute as a phosphor, though prices ~$20,000/kg

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Erbium used in all fiber-optic cables because of unique optical properties. (Also used to make pink-tinted sunglasses!) * No good substitute.

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Cerium used to polish almost all mirrors and lenses because of unique chemical and physical properties.

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Platinum diesel catalytic converters. No good substitute. Rhodium removing NOx emissions. No good substitute.

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Lanthanum - It is usually the metal in a nickel-metal hydride battery, such as what is used in the battery for the Toyota Prius. (Thats my car! A blue Prius)

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U. S. Consumption of Minerals, as a % of world use.

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U.S. Imports of Minerals

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Map of global net metal imports

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Map of global mineral depletion

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Estimated Lifetime of some Selected Minerals Assuming 2009 Rates of Consumption (in thousands of metric tons) (http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/) MineralAnnual ReservesEstimated Resources Est. Lifetime ProductionLifetime (yrs) (yrs) Arsenic 53.5 1,070 20 11,000 210 Bauxite 201,000 27,000,000130 75,000,000370 Cadmium 18.8 590 31 NA Chromium 23,000 350,000 15 12,000,000520 Cobalt 62 6,600110 15,000 240 Copper 15,800 540,000 34 3,000,000190 Gold 2.35 47 20 NA Carbon (graphite) 1,130 71,000 63 800,000700 Indium 0.6 6 10 NA Iron Ore2,300,000 160,000,000 70800,000,000350 Lead 3,900 79,000 20 15,000,000 3800 Lithium 18 9,900550 25,500 1400 Mercury 1.28 67 52 600470 Nickel 1,430 71,000 50 130,000 91 Platinum Group 0.4 71180 100250 Rare Earths 124 99,000800 NA Silver 21.4 400 19 NA Titanium 5,720 730,000130 2,000,000350 Tungsten 58 2,800 48 NA Zinc 11,100 200,000 18 1,900,000170

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Estimated Lifetime of some Selected Minerals Assuming 2009 Rates of Consumption (in thousands of metric tons) (http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/) MineralAnnual ReservesEstimated Resources Est. Lifetime ProductionLifetime (yrs) (yrs) Arsenic 53.5 1,070 20 11,000 210 Bauxite 201,000 27,000,000130 75,000,000370 Cadmium 18.8 590 31 NA Chromium 23,000 350,000 15 12,000,000520 Cobalt 62 6,600110 15,000 240 Copper 15,800 540,000 34 3,000,000190 Gold 2.35 47 20 NA Carbon (graphite) 1,130 71,000 63 800,000700 Indium 0.6 6 10 NA Iron Ore2,300,000 160,000,000 70800,000,000350 Lead 3,900 79,000 20 15,000,000 3800 Lithium 18 9,900550 25,500 1400 Mercury 1.28 67 52 600470 Nickel 1,430 71,000 50 130,000 91 Platinum Group 0.4 71180 100250 Rare Earths 124 99,000800 NA Silver 21.4 400 19 NA Titanium 5,720 730,000130 2,000,000350 Tungsten 58 2,800 48 NA Zinc 11,100 200,000 18 1,900,000170 This does NOT mean that we will run out of any of these minerals or metals in your lifetimes: we will continue to explore and find more. HOWEVER, new resources will be harder to find, harder to extract, have greater environmental impacts, and THE PRICES WILL GO UP!

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Minerals need to be naturally concentrated by geologic processes to be economically mined. (Of course, this depends on the $$) Ex/ gold = 3 parts per billion (0.0000003%) of Earths crust 1 wedding band = 3000 TONS of crust! How do rocks and minerals form?

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Global Map of Copper Deposits Why is there all this copper along the western coast of the Americas? Why is there gold in California and Alaska, but not in Florida?

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Mid-Ocean Ridge Thermal Vents

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Hydrothermal circulation concentrates certain minerals and ores.

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Erosion can also help concentrate minerals to economic levels

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Global Map of Gold Deposits

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Diamonds: Only form naturally more than 150 km beneath the surface! Kimberlite explosions dont happen any more!

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New York Times, Sept. 4, 2009 BEIJING Chinese officials said on Thursday that they would not entirely ban exports on two minerals vital to manufacturing hybrid cars, cellphones, large wind turbines, missiles and computer monitors, although they would tightly regulate production. China produces more than 99 percent of the worlds supply of dysprosium and terbium, two rare minerals essential to recent breakthroughs in high-technology industries.. The move could have forced some factories to relocate to China. Terbium

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US Water Usage

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U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1268, "Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000."Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000 The US use of water has leveled off, even though populations have continued to increase

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U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1268, "Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000."Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000 this is due to improvements in water use efficiency for agriculture, power plants, and awareness of water conservation

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Per capita per day water use, USA 100 gallons personal (2 bathtubs) (1000 gallons total) Rank, in order, the personal water uses in the US: Drinking water Taking baths Taking showers Washing clothes Washing up (dishes, etc.) Flushing toilets

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Personal Water Use

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Food production Pound of rice 250-600 gallons pound hamburger meat 3000 gallons 1 liter of Fiji water 27 liters (1 + 26 for production of bottle!) And 1 liter of gasoline And 0.5 kg CO 2

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1/6 1/3 worlds population: No clean drinking water 3.3 million deaths/yr Major rivers dont make it to ocean Colorado, Rio Grande

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UN: In 2050, 2 - 7 billion human beings may experience chronic water shortages If the wars of this (20 th ) century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water (Ismail Seregeddin, vice president, World Bank; 1995)

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Most of the western US gets very little rainfall.

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Map of Water Scarcity

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Map of Groundwater Stress (how much faster the water is being withdrawn than is being recharged)

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Rate of Groundwater depletion (black = 1 m/yr)

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Very positive future solution: Desalination (map of current global use)

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Desalination: Distillation

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Desalination: Reverse Osmosis (Barcelona, Spain)

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Desalination: Reverse Osmosis

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Desalination: Hadera Plant (Israel) Costs have come down considerably about 0.2-0.4 cents/gal (too expensive for agriculture, but not personal use) (Environmental issues with salt that is left over)