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  • Commentary
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Rare metals getting rarer

Abstract

The supply of some natural resources is unlikely to keep pace with the increasing demands of a growing population. New technologies must be based on abundant materials if we are to achieve sustainable development.

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Figure 1: Yttrium on the rocks.

GROVER SCHRAYER III

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Acknowledgements

The contents of this commentary were first presented as a plenary lecture at the Goldschmidt Conference in Vancouver, July 2008. I am indebted to Colin Campbell, Bert de Vries, Martin Goldhaber, Charles Hall, Niels Mayer, Dennis Meadows, Jørgen Nørgård, Jane Plant and Harald Sverdrup for insightful discussions.

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Ragnarsdóttir, K. Rare metals getting rarer. Nature Geosci 1, 720–721 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo302

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