Colin Bennett's Public Library

At the platform launch, 100 people from business, government, and science were present. Most of the presenting organizations at the seminar had only recently become aware of the issue of material scarcity, and most attendees were unfamiliar with the topic. For instance, the spokesperson for Philips made a remark that the long term availability of elements like terbium had only this year become a topic of concern at the company.

At Shell, the issue of material scarcity is already receiving attention at the higher echelons. The Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, Jorma Ollila, gave a talk at the Koli Forum on Natural Resources in Finland (Transcription available here). With respect to electric cars, Ollila stated in his talk:

Take lithium, a crucial component of the lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars. It can be easily produced in large quantities in only a few places on earth, and current production methods put pressure on the environment. Making a big shift to electric vehicles would require a formidable expansion of the world’s capacity to mine lithium, even if we assume most car batteries will be recycled.