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Made in us
Imperial Agent Provocateur






After ten thousand years of more or less constant war, wouldn't there be huge swathes of the imperium without raw materials like iron, stone, copper etc? Likewise, wouldn't there be huge disparities in consumable calcium due to having so much of it off world, you know because a lot of it was tied up in those tens of billions of guardsmen that are now in some off world grave? Shouldn't a lot of planets be basically barren rocks incapable of supporting life? Unless the Imperium engages in some massive recycling program, there should be a great many planets with this problem, shouldn't there?

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Made in ca
Regular Dakkanaut





Eastern Ontario

I mean, they have access to most of the galaxy for resources; I'm not sure access to raw materials would be an issue on any large scale? Sure local shortages would be a thing but this is a galaxy-spanning empire with interplanetary trade we're talking about.

Also there are a fair number of planets which have been reduced to barren and inhospitable rocks. The Imperium controls more worlds than it knows what to do with, though. That's why Exterminatus, while rare, even exists as an option in the first place.

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Made in nl
Been Around the Block




 Madoch1 wrote:
After ten thousand years of more or less constant war, wouldn't there be huge swathes of the imperium without raw materials like iron, stone, copper etc? Likewise, wouldn't there be huge disparities in consumable calcium due to having so much of it off world, you know because a lot of it was tied up in those tens of billions of guardsmen that are now in some off world grave? Shouldn't a lot of planets be basically barren rocks incapable of supporting life? Unless the Imperium engages in some massive recycling program, there should be a great many planets with this problem, shouldn't there?


I checked, the Earth's crust has about 4.2% of its weight in calcium. The weight of the Earth's crust is around 2.8 * 10^19 tonnes.

So if we say that 0.1% of the earth's calcium in the crust is retrievable, we are talking about 4.2% of 2.8 * 10^16 tonnes = 1.176 * 10^15 tonnes. From what I glean from the internet, about 1.5% of the human bodyweight is actually calcium, so for a burly 100kg guardsman, that would be 1.5 kilo. With 1.176 * 10^15 tonnes in calcium retrievable, that is enough for about 784*10^15 guardsmen. That is 784 thousand trillion (quadrillion) guardsmen. From 1 little planet (I think I haven't made any calculation errors, feel free to check. Even if I made a little mistake here or there, I think it's safe to assume that there will not be a lack of calcium due to the number of guardsmen leaving a planet anytime soon).

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/10/30 15:17:02


 
   
Made in nl
Pragmatic Primus Commanding Cult Forces






Nah, if one planet is out of resources they just move on to the next.
The Imperium controls most of the galaxy. The amount of planets in the galaxy is unimaginably huge. The resources of even a single planet are vast. The Imperium isn't going to run out of resources, not even in ten million years of constant war. For all intents and purposes, the Imperium's resources are virtually limitless. The galaxy is a big place you know.
The problem of the Imperium is never the availability of resources, but rather getting the resources to places they are needed in a timely manner. Precisely because the galaxy is a big place, things like communication, transportation and bureaucracy are massive hassles. The fact that Warp travel is also inherently unreliable doesn't help either.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/10/30 15:29:55


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Made in us
Bonkers Buggy Driver with Rockets






 Madoch1 wrote:
After ten thousand years of more or less constant war, wouldn't there be huge swathes of the imperium without raw materials like iron, stone, copper etc? Likewise, wouldn't there be huge disparities in consumable calcium due to having so much of it off world, you know because a lot of it was tied up in those tens of billions of guardsmen that are now in some off world grave? Shouldn't a lot of planets be basically barren rocks incapable of supporting life? Unless the Imperium engages in some massive recycling program, there should be a great many planets with this problem, shouldn't there?


Yes, some planets should definitely be stripped of resources. The thing is, there are a lot more planets waiting, and in 40K humanity’s definition of “uninhabitable” is very different than that of ours (people live on Catachan, for feth’s sake). Forge worlds long stripped of ore can have resources carted in from other planets. Death worlds with atmosphere incapable of supporting life can produce enough vat-grown food to get by while breathable oxygen can be traded for vehicles with a nearby feral world.

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Made in gb
Keeper of the Holy Orb of Antioch





avoiding the lorax on Crion

There's many thousands of planets. Billions of astaroids out there.

A single astaroids has billions of dollers of rescources in it.

Each one has thousands of tons of valuable ores in, one. And there's millions upon millions.

That's rather alot of rescources alone before you found planets.
Now we have mined so much. 40k can mine alot deeper than we can, they can get alot more percentage of the ores.

We only mine to 4km max. Imagine if you could dig to 20, or more.

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Made in ca
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The Imperium of Man in the far future uses only ethically-sourced, fair-traded, carbon-neutral renewable resources to feed its war machine.

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Made in au
Fresh-Faced New User





A world of the imperium goes through several stages.
First there is the original colonial stage where a planet that is valuable due to raw material, agriculture or simple strategic position is colonised.
This is followed by decades or even centuries of development until a planet reaches one of the basic classifications, mining world, agri world, military outpost etc.
As the population grows eventually the planet can develop into a hive world or if one of the other powers in the Imperium takes interest may develop into a forge or shrine world.

All of these worldsthat reach the final stage of development are almost entirely reliant on resources coming from the rest of the Imperium.
The reason they remain inhabited at all is because the Imperium considers manpower to be one of its most important resources.

So I guess while there are large numbers of worlds that have been striped bare the Imperium has managed to develop a twisted version of recycling in which waste on hive worlds is re-purposed to feed the population and the people themselves have become the new raw export.
Excellent examples of these would be worlds like Mordia or even the Luna wolves old homeworld of Chtonia. Both might have been rich in minerals once but have now simply shifted their focus.
   
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Longtime Dakkanaut





North Carolina

 Madoch1 wrote:
After ten thousand years of more or less constant war, wouldn't there be huge swathes of the imperium without raw materials like iron, stone, copper etc? Likewise, wouldn't there be huge disparities in consumable calcium due to having so much of it off world, you know because a lot of it was tied up in those tens of billions of guardsmen that are now in some off world grave? Shouldn't a lot of planets be basically barren rocks incapable of supporting life? Unless the Imperium engages in some massive recycling program, there should be a great many planets with this problem, shouldn't there?



I would expect that there is some sort of recycling going on. And military equipment is considered more valuable than the people operating it, especially if it's considered holy/ultra-valuable by the Cogboys (Read the novel Gunheads to get an example of this). The Departmento Munitorum doesn't like it when people are careless with the Emperor's property, or waste the Emperor's resources.


That being said, the Imperium of Man is made up of at least a million worlds. There is also the matter of the Rogue Traders and AdMech Explorators being always on the hunt for new worlds to plunder. Resources shouldn't be that much of a problem.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/11/01 08:31:20


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