As a college student in the first year of my PhD program in economic geology, I believe there will be a global transition to online workplaces and recreation facilitated by VR technology within a metaverse in my lifetime. Physical products and services will be progressively replaced by virtualized NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which will be marketed as an eco-friendly, inimitable and unbreakable alternative to physically produced goods made with minimal carbon emissions. I believe that the demand for physical goods will see an inverse correlation with the adoption of metaverse technology, with a consequent drop in demand for hydrocarbons.

What does this mean for the mining industry? Mining will increasingly focus on electronics…