Article discussing how the cost of copper has gone up over time as we've used more and more of the easily accessible, high percentage ores. This is another example of a resource which may contribute to Great Filter considerations (along with fossil fuels). As pointed out in the article, unlike oil, copper doesn't have many good replacements for a lot of what it is used for.

That said, I suspect that this is not a major aspect of the Filter. If the cost goes up, the main impact would be on consumer goods which would become more expensive. That's unpleasant but not a Filter event. It also isn't relevant from the standpoint of resources necessary to bootstrap us back up to the current tech level in event of a major disaster since there will be all sorts of nearly pure copper that could be scavenged from the remains of civilization.

This may however be a strong argument for either finding new copper replacements (possibly novel alloys), or for the development of asteroid mining which will help out with a lot of different metals.

Thoughts? Does this analysis seem accurate?