Between 2010 and 2020 we mined 207 million tonnes of copper around the world, but far from falling, the total global reserves of copper grew by 240 million tonnes. Ponder that for a moment. Humankind is managing to increase our accessible supplies of this vital material at a rate that comfortably outpaces our actual exploitation of it. In fact, a better number to focus on is not the reserves figure miners usually cite, but another number: the resources. Resources, it turns out, are a measure not just of what we have already pencilled in for future extraction, but all the metal under the
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