The Increasing Scarcity of Helium

Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by anigbrowl on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @08:46PM (#9736148)

Because it's so inefficient relative to just pumping it out of oilfields, that it only makes sense when the price is quite high (hence the huge production pullback in response to recent price drops). Now I don't think we can just move off fossil fuels tomorrow, but we're clearly into an era of diminishing returns.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by lotu on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @09:57PM (#9736381)

Extracting gold from rock is inefficient compared to panning for it in a river. That doesn't mean we are running out of gold.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by anigbrowl on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @10:19PM (#9736462)

IT doesn't but it does mean the days of anybody being able to prospect for gold are long gone. you'll always be able to get more of almost any physical resource, but the notion of Peak ____ is economic rather than purely physical.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by dredmorbius on Thursday June 18, 2015 @04:48AM (#9737442)

Actually, total available gold is quite finite, as are resources of other minerals. I looked into this a few weeks ago.

All the gold mined in all human history amounts to about 175,000 metric tons, or 386 million pounds. And there's 7.3 billion of us humans.

That works out to about 24 grams of gold per person, or 0.84 standard ounces (0.77 troy ounces). At present rates of about $1,200 per ounce ($1,187.47 as I write this), it'd be worth slightly less than $1,000.

For copper, it's a kilo or two.

For numerous minerals and natural resources, remaining supplies range from a few years (antimony, 8), to a few decades (aluminium, 80 years).

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120618-global-resources-st...

Listed: antimony, indium, silver, copper, titanium, tantalum, phosphorus, aluminium, gas, oil, coal, agricultural land, coral reefs, rainforests.

Abundance!of!elements!in!Earth's!crust!is!pretty!interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth...

Humans (and other life forms) use free energy to redistribute mineral resources. We're frightfully good at it.

https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/5l_8MqtVwLLvX_DabPjY-g

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by vacri on Thursday June 18, 2015 @04:00AM (#9737307)

We store huge lumps of gold in secure storage. We turn oil into dirty air. Gold doesn't get consumed when we use it.

[ Parent | on HN ]