Mineral Shortages

A study by Simon Michaux titled "The Mining of Minerals and the Limits to Growth" finds that renewable energy technology is facing practical limits from the availability of necessary elements.

It is clear that society consumes more mineral resources each year. It is also clear that society does not really understand its dependency on minerals to function. The recycling industry is still in its infancy and is only just gaining momentum. Even when fully developed, industrial recycling cannot facilitate the transformation of the industrial ecosystem as a single solution. The mining of minerals is not only necessary in parallel to a fully developed recycling network but will be needed at an unprecedented volume to supply the construction of the post fossil fuel industrial system. Availability of minerals could be an issue in the future, where it becomes too expensive to extract metals due to decreasing grade. Discovery of new deposits is also decreasing.