Lead is chemical element, of group 14 in the periodic table, with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. The word and the symbol come from the Latin plumbum.

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

Remaining workable deposits are estimated at 79 million tonnes.

June 2008: at current rates of production, 3.5 million tonnes per year, deposits will last 22 years.

Extractable deposits of lead will therefore disappear for good in 2028.

This date is only a rough indication. Sources differ, and it could change with the evolution of our civilisation.

71% of world production goes into the manufacture of batteries. 13% finds application in laminates and munitions, 12% in the chemicals and paint industries. Miscellaneous applications: 4%.

Problems arising from its disappearance will start to make themselves felt well before this fateful date.

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.

Lead 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.

The leading producer of lead in the world is Australia (30%), the second is China (14%) and the third is the United States (10%)

To learn more about lead, see: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plomb

Translation Nicholas ROSE

Don"t miss reading Point of view by Michel Walter, a programme for the end of our civilisation of wastage.