Resourcing Future Generations White Paper: Mineral Resources and Future Supply

摘要: Demand for natural resources will continue to rise in the decades ahead, driven by resourceintensive development and consumption in countries across the globe. This will occur even as strategies to reduce consumption and improve recycling and substitution become further implemented. To meet this demand requires the discovery of new sources of good quality minerals which can be mined, as well as access to affordable energy and water. Declining rates of discovery of major new resources and the decreasing land area available as communities and conservation regions expand pose major challenges.Resourcing Future Generations (RFG) in Theme 1 activities “will focus initially on comprehensive evaluation and quantification of 21st century supply and demand”. This White Paper contributes to this theme by describing current approaches to quantifying available resources and to projecting future supply. Several techniques are available to assist with planning for future resource availability. Many are currently in use to support investment decisions on the part of resource companies and/or development strategies in emerging economies. However, there are limitations with these techniques and underlying data which become significant as we seek to think further into the future beyond 2050. In summary: