[bodigami]

There has being some discussion of the future production of Indium and Gallium. Both are used in integrated circuits. Lithium is used in batteries.

I think that we must discuss other "peaks" besides P. Oil and P. Population (implyed in die-off, overshoot, ecological, and so on threads). For that we may start with a subset; and I chosed 3 elements used in so-called high-tech. Of this, I have know of the importance of just Lithium. Of note, this element is recyclable.

The only condition for posting on this thread is include a link (basically about production or alternatives) with a quote and comment on it. Of course, this won't be "enforced", but it's the point of the thread. The comment is optional, but I think it's important for knowing why the quote is relevant for the poster.

Analysis: recent panics over rare metal scarcity overblown

Ars Technica is one of 2 RSS feeds I check daily. They're a technical website, but not cornucopian because the "doubts" in the "industry" are transparent when reading it (ie: new technologies are thoroughly critisiced for its potential).

I think this and the graph (in the website) is a nice background context: Indium and Gallium price has to be checked honestly. It seems that with Indium, prices fluctuate up and down. The case is not at all like that of oil; where just the rate of price increases means that supply is way down relative to demand.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')ne of the arguments trotted out in most posts focuses on the fact that the price of Indium has risen from around $95 in 2002 to over $1000 in 2006. What these posts fail to point out is that it was around $180 in 2000, so $95 appears to have been carefully chosen as a starting point. The end point is pretty suspicious as well, given that Indium's price was around $665 in May. Meanwhile, everyone fails to point out that the price of Gallium has remained flat in recent years. Nevertheless, a three-and-a-half-fold increase over eight years is impressive, so, it's worth looking into where it came from.

[ZombieMalthus]

What a coinky-dink, I was just looking into this yesterday.

A good starter is the USGS minerals reports site:

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/

Now if only we could fine something about world consumption, too.