Putting it into perspective

Hi everyone, as mentioned before I'm a geologist and so although I am to cover natural resources in almost all their capacities my interest undoubtably lies mainly within hydrocarbons and minerals. Hydrocarbons receive a great deal of media interest but minerals not so much. For example did you know that the entire Earth's mineable reserves of phosphorous will run out in just 30-40 years and once its gone there is no alternative?

To show you our mineral wealth distribution and usage I have found the following graphics, excuse the fact they are slightly outdated now (coming from 2007) but they are really brilliant at showing the facts. And as I come to the individual minerals in turn I will give you the up-to-date 2012 version of events! Click on the title of the pictures below them to take you to a larger version and take advantage of the zoom features, enjoy!

'Where the minerals are'

'How long will it last?'

'In an average lifetime'