The use of non‐ferrous metal resources for economic growth

Abstract

Concern that non‐ferrous metals are non‐renewable resources influences public policy, and helps shape the debate about their sustainability. This paper briefly discusses the nature of resources and reserves, and shows how the reserve base of the main non‐ferrous metals has grown since 1950. Its growth has greatly outstripped that of production, notwithstanding the large tonnage that has been produced in the interim. This growth has taken place against a backdrop of flat or declining real prices. Charts for each metal compare cumulative production and the changes in reserve bases for each metal for the past five decades, and plot real prices since the 1880s. Today's reserve bases are more than ample to meet future demands. Also past production not only gives rise to a continuing stream of income from the products in which it is used, but it also provides a stock of metals forfuture recycling. Cumulative production over the past two hundred years is compared with the reserve base, and today's recycling. Some directions for research are noted.