The state and prospects of using the planet's natural non-renewable resources

The exhaustibility of non-renewable resources is determined by their natural reserves and the intensity of their use by human society.

According to UN data, the world's population in February 2006 reached 6.5 billion. Demographers estimate that the number will reach 10.5 billion by 2110. In this case, the average population density of the planet will be 70 people per 1 km2 of land.

Population density on the planet is highly uneven; in European countries, it is higher than in others and averages 95 people/km2. In Russia, the population density is 8 people/km2, with 4/5 of the population concentrated in the European part. In Moldova, the population density is 120 people/km2, in Georgia – 74 people/km2, in Asia – 55 people/km2, in India – 130 people/km2, in China – 110 people/km2, in Africa – 14 people/km2, in North America – 14 people/km2, in South America – 13 people/km2, in Australia and Oceania – 3 people/km2, and in the Netherlands and Japan – 300 people/km2.

In the foreseeable future, no problem regarding the exhaustibility of living space is expected. Optimization of land use can be achieved through the development of uninhabited or sparsely populated regions with artificial improvement of human living conditions there.

The exhaustibility of river energy resources is determined by the profitability of constructing and operating hydroelectric power facilities on rivers, canals, and reservoirs. The cascade of hydroelectric power plants built on the Angara, Volga, and other major rivers significantly slows down the water flow velocity. For example, before the construction of the hydroelectric plants on the Volga, water would "reach" from Rybinsk to Volgograd in 1.5 months; now it takes 1.5 years.

Mineral resources are renewable through the evolution of the lithosphere; however, the time for their renewal, measured in hundreds of thousands and millions of years, is incomparable to the time taken to develop deposits and consume mineral wealth. Intensive development of deposits will lead to the progressive depletion of the Earth's interior.

The content of the main chemical elements in the upper layer of the Earth's crust shows that only 9 elements account for 99% of its total mass:

Oxygen 45.2 Magnesium 2.8

Silicon 27.2 Sodium 2.3

Aluminum 8.0 Potassium 1.7

Iron 5.8 Titanium 0.9

Calcium 5.1 Others 1.0

The remaining known elements are present in small and very small quantities.

The consumption of many mineral resources is growing exponentially. Fig. 4.4 shows the world per capita consumption of three important mineral products: zinc, aluminum, and chromite (chromite is a source of metallic chromium in steel alloys, also used as a thermal insulator for furnaces and in the production of chemical products). The data presented allows us to confirm that we are indeed dealing with an exponential growth rate, rather than short-term fluctuations.

Currently, there are quite conflicting data on the world's mineral reserves, and various terms for the "sufficiency" of these resources for humanity are cited. But the results provided do not inspire excessive optimism, especially regarding non-ferrous metal reserves. Reserves of copper, lead, zinc, and tin are predicted to run out in the 21st century; the same awaits precious metals, as well as cobalt, tungsten, molybdenum, manganese, and by the year 2500, the reserves of all metals will be exhausted.

1910 1930 1950 1970 1980 Years

Fig. 4.4. World per capita consumption

Assessment of the status of Russia's mineral resource base

According to estimates provided in, the value of explored and preliminarily assessed reserves of mineral raw materials in Russia as of 1994 amounted to 28 trillion dollars, which is equivalent in value to 2 million tons of gold or the country's gross national product for 20 years.

With the collapse of the USSR, deposits of manganese, lead, chromium, antimony, titanium, and mercury ended up in the territories of the former Soviet republics, from which Russia is forced to purchase them for an amount of 2 billion dollars per year.

Russia's explored oil reserves will last for 35 years. Gold extracted from placer deposits (70% of total production) will last for 3-5 years. In Yakutia, reserves of diamonds extracted by open-pit mining will be exhausted in the near future.

Since 1992, the increase in explored mineral reserves has not covered their extraction. At the same time, exports of raw materials in 1993 increased by 20.9% compared to exports in 1992. This should be regarded as a result of the "entrepreneurial" activity of state and private structures — to take everything possible from nature in order to survive today.

Meanwhile, Russia's resource saturation, which is measured by the amount of resources consumed per capita, is 1.5–3 times lower than in industrialized countries. It is expected that by 2020, the raw material base for 50% of mining enterprises will be exhausted, and Russia may turn from an exporter of mineral raw materials into an importer.

Ways to solve the problem of mineral resources

The problem of the depletion of mineral resources on our planet is highly relevant. In this regard, the following tasks are becoming particularly important:

• increasing mineral reserves by exploring deposits in new territories (using the waters and shelves of the World Ocean, as well as continental crust rocks);
• protection and rational use of the subsoil;
• development of low-waste production using secondary material resources.