We Have Aggregate
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We Have Aggregate
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After the oil episode, some good news for once.
New Zealand sits on the boundary of two tectonic plates, and that violence has been generous with us: world-class gold, vast ironsand, rich geothermal fields, limestone, coal, and more aggregate than we could ever use. On construction materials, we are very close to self-sufficient. If the ships stopped, we could keep building.
The gaps are somewhere less obvious. Drawing on GNS Science's 2024 assessment — the most comprehensive survey of New Zealand's mineral potential ever published — we map what's under our feet against what a modern society actually consumes, and find the shortfall sitting squarely in the materials that advanced manufacturing depends on.
A geologically young, tectonically active country turns out to be unusually rich in some things and starkly empty in others.
Further reading: GNS Science, mineral potential of New Zealand (2024)
At The End Of The World is hosted by Nic Roland and produced by Jamie Thomas. More at ateotw.com