Palladium is a rare metallic chemical element (0.015  ppm in the Earth"s crust), in the platinum group, with symbol Pd and atomic number 46.

Nobody knows palladium and yet it is essential to the workings of catalytic converters for vehicle exhausts as well as computers. (See below.)

Palladium is the fifth non-renewable resource set to disappear thanks to intensive exploitation by mankind.

Remaining workable deposits are estimated at 3,480 tonnes.

June 2008: at current rates of production, 232 tonnes per year, deposits will last 15 years.

Extractable deposits of this metal will therefore disappear for good in 2023.

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

Apart from its use in catalytic converters (45% of consumption), palladium is used in electronics (13%), and in the production of dentures (11%) and jewellery (20%). Miscellaneous (11%).

In electronics, it is used chiefly for the production of multi-layer ceramic condensers (MLCC) which find application in the manufacture of electrical components for mobile telephones and computers, as well as in cars and domestic appliances.
Electro-plating applications include connectors and microchip components for electronic circuits and hybrid integrated circuits.

However problems arising from its disappearance will start to make themselves felt well before the fateful date. On this subject, see Hubbert"s peak theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Of course, there will still be palladium in the ground, but in extremely diluted form, rendering extraction impossible.

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.

Palladium 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 majority of the known reserves are located in Russia and South Africa.

To learn more about palladium, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium

Translation Nicholas ROSE

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