minerals as iron and stee-l in sone ProPortion to the added consumption of more exotic ones such as silver, alurnlniun and titanium. A guantun jurnp of the arms race would make additional clairns on the former and a qualitative leap nould pre-enpt larger shares of the latter. Both the quantitative and gualitative escalations $ould consune much larger proportions of energy for whlch the averase rate of consunption is nuch heaviei for most of the nilitary sector than that generally applicable to civil industry. At a consumPtion of 1'9 gallons per mile' the spohisticated tanks of the the I98Os consune, for example, 10 tirnes mqre gasoline than their predecessors 20 years earlier' Approximat€Iy 20 to 30 per cent of the r,teight of lrpdern sophlsticated conbat aitcraft is lllade uP of titaniun' conpared to I to l0 per cent for the nodels Produced in the 1950s' Titaniun is also a preferred fiEtaI toi tte hulls of certlin types -of subnrarines. .!,i'cdern naval vessels nake extensive use of aluminium. rhe rangl of materials required to bulld and deploy 2oo Land-based mobile intercont inenta.L ballistic rnissiles, for exanple, include an estimated 10'O0O tons of aluminiurn, 21500 tons of chromiunt 150 tons of titaniurn, 20 tons of beryllium, 890,000 tons of steel and 2'4 nillion lons of cenent. !/ x increase in the annual growth rate of consunption by 2 to 5 per cen-t of many of these stragegic ninerals can reduce the life span of their gltbal reserves by 10 to 15 year-s, (see table 4) ' The physical availabillty of an abundantresourcebasein.u-"h"u"",hoh,ever,doesnotensurethattheirsubsequentutilization will not entail additional economic costs involved in extraction and downstrean processing. ]!/ zuture generations wiII' thus' not only face depleted resources but also heavier economic costs of consumptlon' A/37 /386 En911sh Annex Page 32
**Analysis**
The text discusses the relationship between the consumption of minerals and the arms race, highlighting the increasing demand for exotic minerals such as titanium and aluminum. It also touches on the environmental and economic implications of this consumption, including the depletion of global reserves and the increased energy consumption. The text appears to be focused on the intersection of natural resources, energy consumption, and the military sector.

**Category**
Natural resources and environment, Industry