In fact, it may be more renewable than other natural resource extraction activities
By Patrick Whiteway
Is metal and mineral production renewable?
The public thinks not. Politician think not. Metals and minerals are a finite resource, they say. You can't plant or grow more.
This is a fallacy. Metals and mineral production is just as renewable as other forms of resource extraction, such as forestry, and I will explain why here.
One of the defining characteristics of metals and minerals that distinguish them from other natural resources such as wood, fish and wildlife is the fact that they are not consumed by us humans. Instead, they are used and re-used over and over again to make useful products. Once those products are no longer useful to us, we often re-cycle or re-use them (or their component parts). A very large percentage of the metals and mineral used by humans are treated this way. What doesn't get re-used or re-cycled typically gets tossed into landfills or is discipated in the environment.
What this means is that metals and minerals that have been extracted from the Earth are brought into use by society and remain in use for a very long time. They are not consumed as other natural resources are consumed. They remain useful. Their use can be renewed over and over again.
Metals and minerals are so useful more and more are in demand all the time. As population increases and incomes increase, people demand to have all the useful products that can be made from all materials, metals and minerals included.
Its this ever increasing demand that drives the mining industry to find and extract more and more metals and minerals. Without higher demand we would simply re-using and re-cycling what has already been mined.
Perhaps it is this perception of the accellerated global depletion of metals and mineral resources, as China, India and the other emerging economies grow at an accellerated pace, that causes the public to think that metals and minerals production is non-renewable.