Ideas of peak resources are wrong – minerals are so naturally abundant and predictions are always forever flawed, that these arguments serve as nothing more than radical fearmongering by degrowthers

Minerals make up most of what we use to build, manufacture and stand on — including rocks and soil — so if we really ran out of minerals, we'd all be scrambling for a spot on the planet's shrunken surface areas. But if you were worried about running out of a single mineral important for industry, then you probably can breathe easy. Most of the minerals we use a lot are very abundant. Iron, for example, makes up about 32 percent of Earth's crust, so you'd have to worry about finding a place to stand long before worrying about whether we can keep making steel [source: Sharp]. But if we were to run out of a mineral — as in, exhaust our supply — it probably wouldn't be because there's none of it left on Earth. The problem would be that the processes used to extract it have become too expensive, difficult or harmful to make mining worthwhile. Even then, as mining technology advances, previously inaccessible minerals will become available and lower-producing ores will be processed more efficiently. But still, what are we working with here? What are minerals? How big is our planet's supply? Minerals are substances formed naturally underground — think coal, quartz, salt. Like everything else, they're made of elements, basic substances that can't be broken down into simpler substances. Some minerals are single elements, like gold. When we're assessing amounts of minerals in the world, it's more complicated than there being a finite amount of resources that we're using up over time. World mineral reserves are constantly revised based on estimated consumption and current production abilities. For example, in 1950, the estimated copper reserves totaled 100 million metric tons. Over the next 50 years, world copper producers extracted 339 million tons — by 1950 standards we should have run out of copper three times over. For most minerals, supplies have actually increased during the 20th century even though we're using them up faster than ever [source: Blackman] So it's unlikely that Earth will ever run out of minerals. But will people ever experience mineral shortages? Absolutely. In a sense we're always facing mineral shortages. Shortfalls and reduced production stimulate new mines, new technological innovations and lower standards for what counts as high-quality ore. We're also using a wider array of minerals. More than 60 different elements can be used to build a single computer chip [source: Graedel]. A lot of these are minerals that never had industrial applications until 20 or 30 years ago, and they're produced in such small quantities that they're much more susceptible to supply risks. And we have sort of run out of a mineral before. Cryolite, which used to be part of the aluminum production process, is no longer available. Greenland had the last cryolite deposits rich enough to make extraction worthwhile, but the mine closed in the 1980s when new processing techniques let us make aluminum without it. However, even though you can't get cryolite on the market, small veins still exist in spots throughout the world. Opening an expensive mine to extract a mineral nobody needs just doesn't make sense — it would be like building a factory that only manufactures LaserDisc players and telegraph parts. We won't be able to rely on technology to replace just any old mineral, though. A 2013 Yale University study found no potential substitutes for the major uses of a dozen or so metals vital for manufacturing. Some are abundant enough that we don't have to worry about running out anytime soon. For example, 90 percent of manganese is used in making steel. It's irreplaceable, and depleting it would hamstring world steel production — but manganese is also the 12th most common element on Earth, and world ore reserves are estimated at 380 million tons [source: Corathers]. Lead is another irreplaceable mineral, used in goods as varied as car batteries and organ pipes. But with 90 million tons in reserves worldwide, we're nowhere close to using it up [source: Statista].