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by bananaflag9 hours ago |
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upvoteby margalabargala7 hours ago|
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It's a byproduct of aluminum production.

The earth's crust is 8% aluminum.

We will have bigger problems before hitting this one.

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upvoteby adrian_b4 hours ago|
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That is true, but gallium is present in the aluminum and zinc ores only in minute quantities.

We will not remain without gallium, but it is impossible to scale up the gallium production to a higher level than provided by the current productions of aluminum and zinc.

So there is a maximum level of gallium that can be used per year and it would not be possible to increase the production of blue and white LEDs and of power transistors above that level.

Fortunately, the amount of gallium used per device is very small, so it is not likely that we will hit that level soon. A much more serious problem is the associated consumption of indium, for which the resources are much less.

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upvoteby pyrale1 hours ago|
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> On the other hand, it is possible to run out of a metal when all of it is either somewhere in some device or scattered among landfills

The metal isn't going to disappear, but it won't be concentrated enough to be as easily retrievable.

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upvoteby nkrisc9 hours ago|
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That’s still not running out. It’s still there, just more effort to get.
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upvoteby card_zero8 hours ago|
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"At 10 parts per quadrillion, the Earth's oceans would hold 15,000 tonnes of gold", says the Wikipedia page on gold.

I'm inclined to think we've lost that gold.

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upvoteby nkrisc4 hours ago|
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Practically speaking, sure. It's obviously not cost-effective to extract it. But it's there if someone can get it. I don't expect anyone to be extracting gold from ocean water, but there are other source of other elements that may not be cost-effective now but could be in the future or may simply become necessary despite the cost.
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upvoteby PowerElectronix7 hours ago|
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Effort high enough to consider that material lost to any practical purpose like a tv.
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upvoteby nkrisc4 hours ago|
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If prices of certain metals were high enough I bet people would stop throwing out TVs and dig up old ones from the dump.
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upvoteby swiftcoder5 hours ago|
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Cost scales with refinement effort, so it just results in more expensive TVs. That said, pretty sure we'll have drowned the planet in landfilled TVs long before this becomes a serious issue
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upvoteby pwndByDeath7 hours ago|
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Its concentrated in a place like a landfill that already has access for large vehicles.
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