battery can be reclaimed. Substantial amounts of 

 zinc, copper, aluminum, and other metals are also 

 reclaimable. 



A. Demand and Adequacy from Conventional 

 Sources 



Can the United States between now and the 

 year 2000 obtain all the minerals and mineral 

 products it needs? Can it obtain them at no 

 significant increase in relative cost? Are there any 

 specific minerals or groups of minerals for which 

 supply is apt to become critical or an absolute 

 shortage develop? What substitute materials might 

 be used? And what are the prospects for supply 

 from marine sources? 



To attempt to answer these questions makes it 

 necessary to project possible demands for minerals 

 over the remaining years of this century. A 

 projection is a determination of what the future 

 source of some statistical measure such as average 



family income or average copper consumption 

 would be under a certain set of starting assump- 

 tions.^ Projections are never predictions of what is 

 actually going to happen but if skillfully made 

 they can show implications of present trends and 

 programs, and provide a benchmark for appraising 

 later events as they actually occur. 



In Appendix A demand figures are projected to 

 the years 1970, 1985, and 2000 for 26 mineral 

 commodities that, based on existing knowledge, 

 we have some hope of finding in the marine 

 environment. The demand figures were prepared 

 by mineral commodity specialists of the Bureau of 

 Mines and the projections are based on historical 

 consumption data for the period 1947-1966. The 

 projected demands to 1985 and 2000 are sum- 

 marized in Figures 1 and 2. 



Hans Landsberg, Natural Resources for U.S. Growth 

 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1964), p. 6. 



Figure 1. 38 minerals- projections of demand in 1985. 



VII-96 



