The human impact on natural rock reserves using basalt, anorthosite, and carbonates as raw materials in insulation products

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Typical crustal rocks such as basalt, limestone, and anorthosite are used in stone wool insulation products. The raw materials for stone wool production are not specific to any rare mineral source but depend upon the mixture of materials having the correct chemical composition, exemplified by 40 wt% basalt, 20 wt% anorthosite, and 40 wt% cement-bonded renewable materials. This study provides an overview of the natural cycle of these resources, including their abundances in nature, and sets the consumption by the stone wool industry and other human activities in perspective. Basalt, anorthosite, and carbonates are widespread on all continents. Although basaltic rocks cover most of the ocean floor, these reserves are hidden below several kilometres of water and therefore are regarded as inaccessible. Instead, large igneous provinces on land constitute major basaltic reserves useful for human rock exploration. Globally, anorthositic provinces comprise smaller volumes than do limestone or basalt, but still occur in sufficient amounts to supply for the production of insulation materials indefinitely. An evaluation of the modern consumption rates and reserves shows that the crustal inventories of these rock types are so large that they could supply current human demand for millions of years. The natural degradation of surface rocks occurs by physical and chemical weathering creating sediment that is transported along rivers and deposited in the ocean. Sediments are either obducted with continental lithosphere or subducted with oceanic crust and recycled through the mantle by plate tectonics. Insulation products have a chemical composition similar to average crustal rocks and participate in the natural rock cycle. However, these products need not accumulate in nature, inasmuch as old insulation materials serve as excellent source materials for new products. Moreover, current production lines exploit more than 30 natural and 20–30 synthetic source materials that circumvent regional depletion and contribute to the recycling of other industrial materials.