Despite the implementation of resource conservation policy in many countries, the demand for mineral commodities in the world is growing rapidly in both quantitative terms (by about 5% per year), and "a" on it. In the era of the Greek Hellenistic culture and flourishing of the Roman Principate person used 19 chemical elements, at the end of the XVIH.-28, early in the 20th century is 59. On the eve of the second and third millennia mankind uses more than 100 items and their many combinations, including artificially created from natural materials of the lithosphere.
Every year, from the depths of the Earth is more than 100 billion tons of minerals and fuels. This ferrous and non-ferrous metals, coal, oil, gas, construction materials, mining chemical raw materials. The very term "minerals" finds today its bad because the number of useless fossils ", i.e., not used by mankind was drastically reduced, and with the prospect of improvement of low-waste technology and development cycles in the industry definition of" minerals "in fact is now the entire lithosphere. The most accessible deposits of minerals are being depleted rapidly. Thus, intensive development of iron ore deposits led to the depletion of many deposits not only Old but also new world. This ore reserves are scarce in the Urals, in Lorraine (France), the great American Lakes. Markedly diminished resources of copper ores in Zambia and Zaire. And the Pacific State of Nauru, once once of enormous reserves of Phosphorite, have almost lost their.
We emphasize that this is only about the Earth's crust, which is less than 0.5% of the total mass of the Earth (core and mantle are about 99.6%) incidence of elements in the Earth's crust is characterized by klarkami-weight per cent by weight of the total. If the values Klarkov, the mineral resources found in the Earth's crust is so large that all the talk about the severity of global commodity problems seem frivolous. But humanity today relies on the identified resourcesso identified, "obscitannye", available for economic extraction, and not on potential is scattered, concentrated in the lower crust.
According to the latest projections, the main types of mineral resources will suffice until the second half of the 21st century it's optimistic forecasts, which have improved exploration, refining of mineral reserves, opening a major new oil fields, the improvement of the methods of extraction and processing of raw materials. In accordance with the pessimistic forecasts in the coming decade will be exhausted reserves of lead and zinc ores, Tin, gold, silver, Platinum, asbestos, then will cease production of nickel, cobalt, aluminum, etc.
The depletion of the Earth's interior