Re: One-eyed selectivity
I'm not sure that it is quite as bad as that. I'm assuming that Coltan is mined mostly for tantalum (which also comes from tantalite) rather than niobium (used for things like magnets) - There is a lot more niobium in the earth than tantalum. Some of the reserve figures suggest that the largest annual tonnage of tantalum mined was <1500 tonnes in the mid 2000s. Since the GFC tantalum use dropped, and as a result the largest miner, Australia, ceased production (One of the biggest businesses went broke). Shipping has recovered somewhat since then. So far the known reserves of tantalum are ~150,000 tonnes implying that at past usage there is perhaps 100 years of supply. Most of the reserves are in Brazil and Australia - Africa as a whole has ~10% of known reserves.
Something that we might forget is that once technologically-critical elements have been used they can be recycled. Obsolete recycled equipment could be considered to be an ore containing many of these elements - So if the element becomes expensive enough, it is recovered. As a similar example, gold is mined down to very low levels. Boddington, Australia's largest gold mine, is viable at parts-per-million levels (a gram of gold from each tonne of ore) - It produces ~350 tonnes of gold and ~570,000 tonnes of copper a year (Which I think is ~£12 billion in gold and ~£2.5 billion for copper).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
