2006/01/23 by Robert B. Gordon, M. Bertram, T. E. Graedel · 585 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · #Extraction and Separation Processes #Recycling and Waste Management Techniques #Heavy metals in environment #Lithosphere #Sustainability #Copper #Stock (firearms) #Natural resource economics #Metal #Precious metal #Business #Environmental science #Mining engineering #Metallurgy #Geochemistry #Geology #Economics #Materials science #Paleontology
paper · open access · doi:10.1073/pnas.0509498103
published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(5), 1209-1214 (National Academy of Sciences)
openalex publication_date 2006/01/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/11
The relative proportions of metal residing in ore in the lithosphere, in use in products providing services, and in waste deposits measure our progress from exclusive use of virgin ore toward full dependence on sustained use of recycled metal. In the U.S. at present, the copper contents of these three repositories are roughly equivalent, but metal in service continues to increase. Providing today's developed-country level of services for copper worldwide (as well as for zinc and, perhaps, platinum) would appear to require conversion of essentially all of the ore in the lithosphere to stock-in-use plus near-complete recycling of the metals from that point forward.