World Mineral resources and the Limits to Economic Growth

Abstract

This presentation describes how the present economic situation can be described in terms of the system dynamics models developed in the series of studies that were titled "The Limits to Growth". The result of this examination is that mineral depletion may be a major factor in causing the slowdown in economic growth in several countries. The effect is not the result of "running out" of any resource, but of the gradual increase in extraction costs which is forcing the economy to dedicate larger and larger resources to the production of mineral commodities.