The Depletion of Non-Renewable Abiotic Resources - Thanatia: The Destiny of the Earth's Mineral Resources - page 4

networking. They also move industry and build the infrastructures that mankind
relies on i.e. roads, the electrical grid, schools and hospitals and even the equipment
inside such institutions or on the roads: the cars, electronics and a whole host of
other devices.
Non-fuel minerals are equally essential to society with the average new born
American, according to the Institute for Mineral Information 2 , consuming in their
life time (77.9 years): 12,614 kg of iron ore, 2297 kg of aluminum (bauxite), 424 kg
of copper, 389 kg of lead, 212 kg of zinc, 45.4 g of gold, 17,526 kg of cement, 14,876
kg of salts, 7,667.5 kg of phosphate rock, 5,795 kg of clays, 494.4 million tonnes of
stone, sand, and gravel, 18,374 kg of other minerals and metals, 230 tonnes of coal,
240.1 toe of petroleum and 163.3 toe of natural gas 3 .

Zirconium
Zinc
Wolfram
Vanadium
Uranium
Titanium-ilmenite
Titanium-rutile
Tin
Thorium
Tellurium
Tantalum
Strontium
Silver
Silicon
Selenium
Rhenium
REE
Potash
PGM
Phosphate rock
Niobium
Nickel - laterites
Nickel - sulfides
Molybdenum
Mercury
Manganese
Magnesium
Lithium
Limestone
Lead
Iron ore
Iodine
Indium
Helium
Gypsum
Graphite
Gold
Germanium
Gallium
Fluorspar
Feldspar
Copper
Cobalt
Chromium
Cesium
Cadmium
Boron
Bismuth
Beryllium
Barium
Arsenic
Antimony
Aluminium (Bauxite)

3,500,000,000

Production, tons

3,000,000,000

2,500,000,000

2,000,000,000

1,500,000,000

Phosphate rock

Limestone

1,000,000,000

Iron ore

500,000,000

Gypsum

Aluminium

0

Fig. 1.1 Production of the main non-fuel mineral commodities on Earth in the 20th century

The Earth has become a huge mine. The 2010 global demand for minerals was
45,000 million tonnes. Those most highly consumed are the fossil fuels, construction
materials such as lime, gypsum, gravel and sand and the salts such as sodium
chloride, potassium chloride and phosphates. As for metals, consumption rates
were led by iron, aluminium, copper, manganese, zinc, chromium, lead, titanium,

2 See: Institute for Mineral Information, (2011). Available at: http : ==www:mii:org=pdfs=
=Baby_Info:pdf, Accessed Aug. 2012.
3 Additionally, Cohen (2007) published that the average world citizen will use the following mi-
nerals: chromium, 131 kg; nickel, 58.4 kg; platinum, 45g; tin, 15kg; antinomy, 7.13 kg; uranium,
5.95 kg; silver, 1.58 kg; gold, 48 g; tantalum, 180 g; germanium, 10 g; gallium, 5 g, and no minor
amount of indium and hafnium.