asked the Secretary of State for Industry, at current rates of consumption, what is the anticipated life of current reserves of chrome, cobalt, nickel, manganese, tin and copper (a) in the world and (b) in the free world.

At current rates of consumption the expected life of known reserves in the world and the world excluding COMECON countries is as follows:

		World years	World excluding COMECON countries years
Chrome	…	280	370
Cobalt	…	60	60
Nickel	…	80	90
Manganese	…	240	210
Tin	…	50	50
Copper	…	50	60

These estimates are constantly changing due to the discovery of new resources, developments in mining and mineral processing techniques, and to short and long-term variations in consumption.

IMPORTS AS A PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL DELIVERIES TO UNITED KINGDOM MARKET
	1976	1977	1978	1979 January-September
Rods and bars for reinforcement	21	15	16	10
Wire rods and other rods and bars in coil	11	14	11	14
Other light rolled sections and hot rolled bars	11	18	22	21
Heavy rails and accessories	0	0	13	11
Other heavy rolled products	8	9	9	13
Plates	29	30	28	27
Sheets (coated and uncoated)	39	36	41	35
Hot rolled strip	7	8	7	8
Cold rolled strip	9	11	13	15
Tinplate and buckplate	13	11	12	14
Tubes and pipes	28	28	19	24
TOTAL FINISHED STEEL PRODUCTS	21	20	21	21