Minerals Depletion

In the mid-1970s I taught an energy course at VPI&SU. I became interested in how minerals depletion was estimated and decided that I could do it better than had been done.

I used the least-squares-fit program of my colleague, Dr. Richard A. Arndt, to fit production-rate data for most minerals mined in the United States and the world.

Three books were published of that work:

• The Depletion of United States and World Mineral Resources, Richard A. Arndt and L. David Roper, University Publications, Blacksburg VA, 1977.
• The Metals and Mineral Fuels Crises, Facts and Predictions, Richard A. Arndt and L. David Roper, University Publications, Blacksburg VA, 1977.
• Where have all the metals gone?, L. David Roper, University Publications, Blacksburg VA, 1976. A much smaller file, that contains the Table of Contents, list of figures, list of tables, the Preface and a Summary is available.

See Depletion Theory for a summary of the mathematics used in this research.

Most recent minerals-depletion work:

• World & United States Fossil-Fuels Depletion
• Uranium Depletion
• Precious Metals Depletion (Silver, Gold & Platinum Group)
• Bauxite Depletion
• Cadmium Depletion
• Chromium Depletion
• Colbalt Depletion
• Copper Depletion
• Helium Depletion
• Iron-Ore Depletion
• Lead Depletion
• Lithium Depletion
• Manganese Depletion
• Mercury Depletion
• Molybdenum Depletion
• Nickel Depletion
• Phosphate-Rock Depletion
• Tin Depletion
• Tungsten Depletion
• Zinc Depletion

Minerals Depletion proportional to available fossil-fuels energy.

Triple Threats for the Human Future