Hafnium is a chemical element of the periodic table with symbol Hf and atomic number 72.

This metal is the second non-renewable resource set to disappear thanks to intensive exploitation by mankind.

Extractable hafnium will disappear for good in 2018 or soon after.

Owing to a lack of necessary information, this date is only an approximation.

Hafnium is used chiefly in the control rods of nuclear reactors, for example, in submarines, mainly because of its very high neutron-absorption capacity (about 600 times that of zirconium). In addition, it has very good mechanical properties and excellent corrosion-resistance.

Applications: filaments of conventional incandescent lamps, iron, tantalum and titanium alloys, an alternative to silicon dioxide SiO₂ as an insulator in computer processors .

Even if, thanks to advances in technology, we find new deposits by digging deeper and deeper into the Earth"s crust, this will afford us only a few years"reprieve and will not make a major impact on the situation.

Hafnium was created when a star exploded and the Sun and the Earth were formed from the debris, over five billion years ago.

You cannot produce it artificially and there is no substitute. The Moon and the asteroids do not contain the metal in an extractable form. And just imagine the energy it would take to bring some back from Mars or Venus!

There will still be recycling but demand, which will keep growing exponentially with the development of the emerging economies, will far outstrip supply.

To learn more about hafnium, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnium

Translation Nicholas ROSE

Translation Nicholas ROSE