New infographic depicts how many minerals humans need over their lifetime

The Minerals Education Coalition has released their annual infographic called the “Mineral Baby.” This infographic depicts an estimated amount of minerals and other resources that an American child born in this year will consume over their lifetime. In the 2022 statistics, the average American baby will need 3.02 million pounds of minerals, metals and fuels in their lifetime. This contrasts with the statistics that estimated an American baby born in 2006 would need 3.7 million pounds of minerals, metals and fuels. In comparison with the 2006 baby, 2022 babies will need less than half of the amount of coal. But the 2006 baby doesn’t list lithium, while the 2022 baby does. This can be interpreted as the movement towards greener energy resources, which will require more minerals like lithium, and copper. According to the MEC, the consumption of lithium increased by 33% from 2020-21 for renewable energy resources.