The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Mike Dodd wrote:
Oh, and if you think oil was scarce, try the Lithium used in the
batteries. Replace all ICs with lithium powered electric and I think
you'll hit a minor snag.


I think you will find that a large part of the earth's crust is made of
lithium actually. One of the most common elements.

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pu...lithimcs06.pdf

For a US centric view on world lithium reserves..that totally ignores Asia.


Ah, I did refute my own statement, about 20 minutes before you. Server
lag and if you'd already downloaded headers then understandable. My poor
and hungover memory was the electronics shortage of tantalum. Still,
there has been a gap between supply and demand a couple of years ago -
but that seems to be resolved now. Yes, I probably followed the same
link as you to the above from Wiki (I was sure I'd got something wrong
and needed to quickly research). Then I got sidetracked onto something
within Wiki that discussed the use of lithium in nuclear weapons, which
sounded all the more interesting.