Terbiumis a chemical element, with symbol Tb and atomic number 65.

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

Extractable terbium will disappear for good in 2012 or soon after.

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

Current applications: Fuel cells: stabiliser for the ZrO₂ crystals in the cells. The oxide Tb₂O₃ is used for X-ray screens, as a source of luminous green light, as phosphorescent material for cathode-ray tubes, and as an activator for green luminescent materials for cathode-ray tubes.

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.

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

ou 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 terbium, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terbium

Translation Nicholas ROSE

To extend on the same theme : UPON REFLECTION of Michel Walter, the scheduled termination of the civilization of waste et 17 years to go before the end of galvanized steel