In modern times, despite rapidly using up resources, there is constant improvement in technology. This means that new sources become available as older ones are depleted. However, before the industrial revolution, the pace of technological progress was very slow, and most civilizations did not have the ability to import large quantities of bulk goods from distant parts of the world. I know that in this period, individual mines were often exhausted. If that happened, it seems there would be no way to replace that lost source of resources, forever.
Is this something that's been studied? Were ancient and medieval societies concerned about running out of mines entirely at some point in the future? If industrial civilizations collapsed today, would we have no access to many types of ore because all of the stuff that was easily accessible has run out?
Deforestation has been a major issue in England starting from around the end of the 15th century - this is what lead to their use of coal (the substitute). Rome had a similar issue, but their substitute was similar to the gold mine issue - invasion and capture of resources.
Can you restate this question? " If industrial civilizations collapsed today, would we have no access to many types of ore because all of the stuff that was easily accessible has run out? " Didn't realize understand the wording.
I'm curious to the exhausting of mines pre-modern era as well, or before the 21st century, or before the 1900's. My guess is that it's limited to their man power, and how much they can mine. I don't know how they made steel out of the Iron ore. I was just reading a Classical Greek thread and it was said that Silver Ore was the #2 export of BC Athens, which is a lot. I wonder how they mined that, and how it was so abundant, because it was a major economy factor for them and did not seem to run out. We should also check what people used to build. Iron Ore and Steel for building roads, railroads and trains, factories and skyscrapers, when did it become more important?