This brings us to the real challenge: not so much that we are likely to run out of the metal, nor that it will become too expensive. The real question is how much more of this blasting and digging people will tolerate. As this book went to print governments around much of South America, including Chile and Peru, the world’s second biggest producer, were voicing concerns about the environmental costs of copper mining. They began to impose limits on copper extraction, raising questions about its future supply.
