Supplies of Rare Earth Elements Exhausted By 2017

tomhudson writes "While we bemoan the current oil crisis, I ran across an editorial that led me to research a more immediate threat. Ramped-up production of flat-panel displays means the material to make them will be 'extinct' by 2017. This goes for other electronics as well. Quoting: 'The element gallium is in very short supply and the world may well run out of it in just a few years. Indium is threatened too, says Armin Reller, a materials chemist at Germany's University of Augsburg. He estimates that our planet's stock of indium will last no more than another decade. All the hafnium will be gone by 2017 also, and another twenty years will see the extinction of zinc. Even copper is an endangered item, since worldwide demand for it is likely to exceed available supplies by the end of the present century.' More links at the journal entry."

Comments

supply and demand - no real problem

[petes_PoV]

A nice scare story, but flawed. As the amount of a material declines, the price goes up. That makes it more economical to extract it from more expensive sites/ores and also makes prospecting for more sources worthwhile.

We saw this with oil scares (it's all going to run out/there's only 25 years supply) in the 70's and 80's. We'll see it with pretty much every other resource as it makes a nice, juicy story. In practice the price may well go up, but we'll live with it or maybe find cheaper alternatives

Landfill mining

[192939495969798999]

Everyone relax, we can mine the stuff from our own landfills.

Re:get your ass to Mars

[damburger]

Its been said you could pile up gold bricks on the moon and it would still be a huge loss bringing them back. This isn't going to change, unless you somehow think that the required delta-V is going to respond to market forces, and I've already had to tear some fool a new one for that.

Space will never be profitable, so to look to space we need to look beyond profit.

Re:I'm not worried in the least because I plan to

[squizzar]

Much as I like the prospects of biofuels I am afraid to say that using Brazil as an example is not particularly relevant. The fuel consumption of Brazil does not compare to that consumed by the US or Europe. You have enough resources for food and fuel now, you may do so for the rest of eternity, that doesn't mean that it is a viable proposition anywhere else. I can't remember where I read it, but the fuel consumption per capita in Brazil is about 11% of that in the US. source: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con_percap-energy-oil-consumption-per-capita So essentially if you have 10x as much food as you need then maybe you are onto something, otherwise the problem still stands.