‘On a trajectory of ‘business as usual’, we will have much less than 50 years left of cheap and abundant access to metal minerals.’

‘The production rate of metal minerals will start to decline well in advance of the depletion of reserves as it will take exponentially more energy input and metal minerals input to grow or even sustain the current extraction rate of metal minerals.

‘Conventional mitigation strategies including recycling and substitution are necessary but insufficient without a different way of managing our world’s resources.’

‘We can increase the lifespan of the reserves of various materials by making a shift towards large-scale application of the elements of hope with a sensible use of the frugal and the critical elements’.

From: Diederen, André (2009) Metal minerals scarcity: A call for managed austerity and the elements of hope. TNO Defense, Security and Safety.

From the same author (2010) Global Resource Depletion. Managed Austerity and the Elements of Hope. Eburon Delft:

‘Leaving out essential parts from the area of concern as a result of abundance thinking may cause pipe dreams like the sympathetic plan published by Scientific American in November 2009 to replace all fossil fuels by 2030.’

‘One specific bottleneck (…) is the need for the rare earth metals neodymium (ND) and dysprosium (Dy) for 5MW wind turbines.’

‘The number of wind turbines to be built within the next 20 years requires some 3 million tons of neodymium whereas the current annual primary production rate is around 18.000 tons.’ [Thus, the plan requires more than 160 times the current annual production, and within 20 years]