Scientists typically use physical indicators, such as average crustal abundance, and energy requirements in production, as measures of the availability of mineral resources. Economists, on the other hand, typically rely on measures such as prices, and extraction costs. This study investigates the role of crustal abundance, energy requirements, and other physical indicators in determining relative metal prices. The relationship between prices, and physical indicators is estimated statistically for a sample of 22 chemical elements over the period 1970–2013 using an economic market model. The results suggest that energy requirements in production explain 43% of observed variation in metal prices, crustal abundance 21%, and other physical indicators (toxicity, native metal status, and melting point) combine to explain 12% of the observed differences in metal prices.

中文翻译：

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了解相对金属价格和可用性：结合物理和经济角度

科学家通常使用物理指标，例如平均地壳丰度和生产中的能源需求，作为矿产资源可用性的衡量标准。另一方面，经济学家通常依赖价格和开采成本等指标。本研究调查地壳丰度、能源需求和其他物理指标在确定相对金属价格方面的作用。价格与物理指标之间的关系是使用经济市场模型对 1970 年至 2013 年期间 22 种化学元素的样本进行统计估计的。结果表明，生产中的能源需求解释了 43% 的观察到的金属价格变化、21% 的地壳丰度和其他物理指标（毒性、天然金属状态、