Critical Minerals and Energy–Impacts and Limitations of Moving to Unconventional Resources. McLellan, B., Yamasue, E., Tezuka, T., Corder, G., Golev, A., & Giurco, D. Resources, 5(4):19, May, 2016.
Critical Minerals and Energy–Impacts and Limitations of Moving to Unconventional Resources [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
The nexus of minerals and energy becomes ever more important as the economic growth and development of countries in the global South accelerates and the needs of new energy technologies expand, while at the same time various important minerals are declining in grade and available reserves from conventional mining. Unconventional resources in the form of deep ocean deposits and urban ores are being widely examined, although exploitation is still limited. This paper examines some of the implications of the transition towards cleaner energy futures in parallel with the shifts through conventional ore decline and the uptake of unconventional mineral resources. Three energy scenarios, each with three levels of uptake of renewable energy, are assessed for the potential of critical minerals to restrict growth under 12 alternative mineral supply patterns. Under steady material intensities per unit of capacity, the study indicates that selenium, indium and tellurium could be barriers in the expansion of thin-film photovoltaics, while neodymium and dysprosium may delay the propagation of wind power. For fuel cells, no restrictions are observed.
@article{mclellan_critical_2016,
	title = {Critical {Minerals} and {Energy}–{Impacts} and {Limitations} of {Moving} to {Unconventional} {Resources}},
	volume = {5},
	issn = {2079-9276},
	url = {http://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/5/2/19},
	doi = {10.3390/resources5020019},
	abstract = {The nexus of minerals and energy becomes ever more important as the economic
growth and development of countries in the global South accelerates and the needs of new energy
technologies expand, while at the same time various important minerals are declining in grade and
available reserves from conventional mining. Unconventional resources in the form of deep ocean
deposits and urban ores are being widely examined, although exploitation is still limited. This paper
examines some of the implications of the transition towards cleaner energy futures in parallel with the
shifts through conventional ore decline and the uptake of unconventional mineral resources. Three
energy scenarios, each with three levels of uptake of renewable energy, are assessed for the potential
of critical minerals to restrict growth under 12 alternative mineral supply patterns. Under steady
material intensities per unit of capacity, the study indicates that selenium, indium and tellurium
could be barriers in the expansion of thin-film photovoltaics, while neodymium and dysprosium may
delay the propagation of wind power. For fuel cells, no restrictions are observed.},
	language = {en},
	number = {4},
	urldate = {2018-03-12},
	journal = {Resources},
	author = {McLellan, Benjamin and Yamasue, Eiji and Tezuka, Tetsuo and Corder, Glen and Golev, Artem and Giurco, Damien},
	month = may,
	year = {2016},
	keywords = {energy, minerals, limits, collapse},
	pages = {19},
	file = {McLellan et al. - 2016 - Critical Minerals and Energy–Impacts and Limitatio.pdf:C\:\\Users\\rsrs\\Documents\\Zotero Database\\storage\\C8LMEPUH\\McLellan et al. - 2016 - Critical Minerals and Energy–Impacts and Limitatio.pdf:application/pdf}
}

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