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ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

Metal footprint linked to economy

The annual quantity of metal being used by humans has been on the rise. A new analysis of 43 major economies reveals the extent to which year-to-year fluctuations in metal footprints have been in lockstep with countries’ economic growth and changes in investment spending.

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Fig. 1: Per capita metal footprints of the world’s three most populous countries, 1995–2013, as calculated by Zheng et al.1.

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Correspondence to Paul J. Burke.

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Burke, P.J. Metal footprint linked to economy. Nature Geosci 11, 224–225 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0101-0

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