Global Reserves

– Review the most recent data on copper supply from the USGS: http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/copper/mcs-2016-coppe.pdf and consider the global supply of copper. a)              If demand for copper stays constant, how many year’s worth of production do the current global reserves represent?   b)            From that same USGS data source, you can find that in 2010, the global demand for copper was 15,900 thousand metric tons.  This global demand rose to 18,700 thousand metric tons per year in 2015.  What annual percentage growth in demand does this represent?   If demand for copper stays constant, how many year’s worth of production do the current global reserves represent? c)             If future demand continues to increase at the same rate as you found in part b, how many years will the current reserves last?  Hint – you can either integrate the demand as a mathematical function or you can adopt a numerical approach using a spreadsheet.