Stainless steel contains a necessary 12% (often more, usually 18%) chromium, which is relatively scarce from a building materials perspective. Already 85% of av

Stainless steel contains a necessary 12% (often more, usually 18%) chromium, which is relatively scarce from a building materials perspective. Already 85% of available chromium is used for stainless steel; many other metals are primarily supplied as byproducts of chromium extraction because of the extensive efforts [1, 2] made to locate and exploit deposits. In fact, total rebar production is roughly the same scale (if not larger) as total stainless steel production, meaning that practically the entire world supply of stainless steel would have to be diverted to rebar in order to use it for this. In general only the 12 or so most common elements can be used for construction. Copper is the rarest material used in major applications, but this is relatively less total mass consumed than rebar. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushveld_Igneous_Complex#Mining https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushveld_Igneous_Complex#Minin... (50% of world supply) 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Fire_(Northern_Ontario) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Fire_(Northern_Ontario...