Will the human race run out of specific minerals? (Details inside ) (NSFW )

Not any time soon, but in the future you never know,it might happen but I hope I am a long time gone when that day happens.

It depends on how far into the future you mean. In my opinion, mankind will end it’s reign within 250 years. And I’m being generous when I say 250!

Well, we are starting to find fewer usable sources of Phosphorous. and Helium is definately in a shortage of supply.

And the human body is a pretty sad place to start looking for recycling material. We are actually mostly garbage.

If we make it past a certain break point we’ll basically be around forever (using off planet resources). If we don’t get there…well you know the rest. I think we are less than 75 years from getting there. If we can free ourselves from being bound by this planet it’ll be like the industrial revolution on steroids laced with cocaine.

The short answer to this question is “No, we will not ‘run out of’ minerals’.”

The chemical elements that make up the Earth are not (generally) going anywhere. (There are exceptions. Those items that we make into spacecraft that we send outside of Earth orbit are gone, essentially forever. In addition, helium that escapes into the atmosphere rises until it actually does leave the atmosphere. But those are the only examples I know of that describe “unrecoverable” elements, and really, they’re not much.)

All of the other elements that we use, including the so-called “rare earth” minerals that make the news from time to time are used in the production of stuff … which eventually ends up in landfills (or sunk at the bottom of the ocean). So those elements will always be available, but their relative scarcity sends pricing signals to miners that “it’s worth your time and trouble to find more of this stuff”. So they do that. And that’s why we don’t run out, because it’s a big planet, and there is always more of the stuff we need to be found somewhere, if someone will take the trouble to find it, mine it, refine it and sell it.

I’m trying to figure out why this is [NSFW].

Yes, we will run out of certain elements—Helium is a serious problem already, as are some rare earth metals used in electronic components.

I can’t guess whether it will be in 20 years or 500 years. but rare elements are… rare… and can be depleted.

@elbanditoroso The harvesting of dead bodies sounds NSFW. Pulling gold teeth out and gooifing the body for vitamins and minerals. Also someone could add a photo.

Cool idea. Good Q.
All I can come up with is Plutonium.
But if so- we won’t be around to care.

They have been talking about mining asteroids quite seriously. I can imagine that this isnt actually that far fetched. Most commonly made up of nickel, but I am sure we can find some interesting stuff out there.

@talljasperman – I’m afraid I don’t buy that reasoning.

We have all heard about the Nazis, who, among other atrocities, harvested jewelry and gold tooth fillings from Jews and gypsies before incinerating them. I’m not sure how much worse this question is than the actual truth.

All of that said, it does seem rather silly to bury valuable metals along with the bodies that carry them.

And, for a cinematic reference, look only as far as A Soylent Green where the good supply is provided by the protein from human corpses.

Burying people, and for that matter cremation, is wasteful./