Julian Turner opines that in 1987, an extinction event took place that went virtually unnoticed and unremarked upon outside of geological and mining circles. Now abandoned, the Ivigt mine once contained the largest known reserves of naturally occurring cryolite. First described in 1798, this mineral was primarily used in aluminium extraction, but also as an insecticide and pesticide, to make caustic soda and even to give fireworks a yellow color. And then in 1987 the mine simply ran out.
Its demise is a reminder of how susceptible mineral supplies are to the dynamics of global demand, consumption and pricing, and the impact they have on social and industrial evolution.
Many mineral commodities have changed in importance over time, says Dr Lawrence Meinert of the U.S. Geological Survey. In the Stone Age flint was extremely valuable, but the need for flint arrowheads diminished and thus the mining of flint has stopped. Similarly, the Romans prized salt very highly, but its centrality to the world economy is now much less than in the past.
Conversely, the use of most metals has skyrocketed during the industrial age, with iron, copper and aluminium being mainstays of much of the world economy and infrastructure. Rare-earth elements are much more important than they were 30 years ago and are indispensable in technologies such as smartphones, wind turbines and hybrid cars.
Other changes have only recently started developing. The expansion of the electric car fleet promises to greatly increase the need for lithium. It is likely that future technologies will require other elements of the periodic table that are not widely used today.
It is a mater of reserves vs resources and cost, price and technology. Meinert makes the distinction between reserves, minerals identified in location and quantity therefore relatively easy to factor into supply chains and rates of consumption, and resources, quantified without long-term geologic and geophysical study.
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