INSEAD, 77305 Fontainebleau, France.
Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. 2013 Jan 28;371(1986):20110563. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2011.0563. Print 2013 Mar 13.
In the last few decades, progress in electronics, especially, has resulted in important new uses for a number of geologically rare metals, some of which were mere curiosities in the past. Most of them are not mined for their own sake (gold, the platinum group metals and the rare Earth elements are exceptions) but are found mainly in the ores of the major industrial metals, such as aluminium, copper, zinc and nickel. We call these major metals 'attractors' and the rare accompanying metals 'hitch-hikers'. The key implication is that rising prices do not necessarily call forth greater output because that would normally require greater output of the attractor metal. We trace the geological relationships and the functional uses of these metals. Some of these metals appear to be irreplaceable in the sense that there are no known substitutes for them in their current functional uses. Recycling is going to be increasingly important, notwithstanding a number of barriers.
在过去的几十年中，电子学的进步，特别是，导致了一些在地壳中储量稀少的金属的许多新的重要用途，其中一些在过去只是猎奇之物。它们中的大多数并不是为了自身而被开采（金、铂族金属和稀土元素是例外），而是主要存在于主要工业金属（如铝、铜、锌和镍）的矿石中。我们称这些主要金属为“吸引剂”，而稀有的伴生金属为“搭便车者”。关键的含义是，价格上涨不一定会带来更大的产量，因为这通常需要更大的吸引剂金属产量。我们追溯了这些金属的地质关系和功能用途。其中一些金属在其当前的功能用途中似乎是不可替代的，因为在它们当前的功能用途中，没有已知的替代品。尽管存在一些障碍，但回收利用将变得越来越重要。
