Have you considered all the materials used to make a mobile phone? -- typically 46 chemical elements, which is almost everything on the Periodic Table except noble gases and plutonium, thank goodness.

But don't celebrate yet. Cadmium reserves are practically gone. Hence, the rush to make lithium batteries, so we can churn out another billion i-Phones, G-phones and netbooks. Manufacturers are going to economize on thinner layers of scarce gold and silver, which are no longer mined in meaningful quantities. Use of precious metals in consumer electronics and future battlefield systems depend entirely on recycling the cellphones and desktop computers that we already threw in the trash.

Efforts to harvest and recycle scarce elements from consumer electronics, medical equipment, industrial gear, etc, have been extremely successful in Europe, where strict regulation and common sense dictates heroic economy and recycling. 100 per cent of EU27 consumption of antinomy, cobalt, molybdenum, niobium, platinum, rare earth metals, tantalum, titanium minerals, and vanadium are imported from non-EU countries.

Are those critical supplies secure? Nope. Europeans are keenly aware of past, present, and likely future supply disruptions.

Take rhenium for example, used in jet engines blades, wind turbines, and rocket nozzles. 75 per cent of world supply comes from two companies, Molymet in Chile and Redmet in Kazakhstan. Five years ago, Redmet exports were blocked due to a dispute over debt with a copper company that supplied Redmet. The price of rhemium skyrocketed from USD 1,000 per kg, to USD 6,000 per kg. Known future production increases are already sold.

We live in a world of increasing scarcity and resource nationalism. China has banned export of aluminum ore and concentrates, copper, rare earth metals (used in DC motors), magnesium, nickel, and non-ferrous scrap. Not to be outdone, Russia banned export of ferrous scrap. China increased the price of antinomy from USD 0.80 per pound in 1995, to USD 2.25 in 2006. Supply at any price is uncertain today.

The rare earth metals are a virtual Chinese monopoly at today's price, and China forbids export because they intend to become a leading producer, perhaps sole source of rare earth "green tech" finished goods. Canada may be able to mine rare earth minerals in the future. At present, TSX-listed Neo Material Technolgies is focussed on reclamation and recycling gallium, indium, and rhemium. NEM's factory in Ontario crushes up turbine blade scrap to yield a couple parts per million of scarce rhemium.

Do we have enough silicon and germanium to supply computer and cellphone producers? No.

But the big question is lightweight batteries used in hybrid and electric cars. Lithium, the key ingredient in Next Generation mobile power, will zoom from a projected 11,000 metric tone in 2012 to 90,000 metric tons in 2020. Do you know anyone who has a lithium mine in his back yard?

Australia is best positioned and naturally endowed to make a deal with China that could boost production of rare earth oxides, although China's detention of four Rio Tinto staffers has somewhat cooled the outlook for Sino-Oz joint ventures.

Elsewhere, Great Western Minerals is working to refurbish the Steenkampskraal mine in South Africa. New projects will spring up worldwide in response to higher demand and stockpiling of critical elements.

But it's a race that no one can win. Like peak oil, peak metal is a geological fact. There will be less "trash" in the future, more recycling, and severe reduction of whatever nations and individual consumers once thought they could afford.

Certainly, there will be investment opportunities going forward. The Japanese Rare Metals Task Force, US Geological Survey, Netherlands TNO, and US Academy of Science have issued excellent reports discussing which elements are critical, which are "frugal" to be husbanded carefully, and others dubbed "elements of hope" that might be used in substitution.

The critical list is well known: platinum group, rare earths, indium, manganese, nibbium, silver, cadmium, titanium, chromium, palladium, scandium, gallium, and neodymium. If you have an opportunity to invest in production of these elements by a reasonably well-structured Western company, I highly recommend you take a look.

As for me personally, the focus of my effort remains oil prospecting. We won't be able to make anything work without energy, and liquid petroleum is still the most practical way to ship goods and move people to and from work.

The last thing we need is an oil crunch, while we learn to transition from consumer excess to a New Normal "use less" that emphasizes recycling. New technologies are expensive. Nothing happens without transport and trade, which means gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.

At present, we have ample supplies of iron ore and plenty of coal. Those old fashioned resources take on new significance in the New Normal. The crunch is coming in exotic high-tech materials, not basic elements like carbon and hydrocarbon.

We may have to slim down our expectation of convenience and "super"-anything, but no one will starve, no one will freeze to death, if world governments agree that oil and coal are essential to sustain industrial civilization.