I thought a surplus was for a rainy day ? How hard does it have to rain before we declare it a 'rainy day' When times are good, we should have a surplus for 'a rainy day'. when we get a world wide deluge akin to biblical proportions, a surplus is obscene.

Pepper, we should be literally printing money at the moment.

If only we went fighting wars, both military and peaceful ones, and looking after so many haner oners, we might be able to.

The truth is, we are going to be taxing our miners just to replace the billions that have been wasted, and that's a crying shame, as these minerals will not last for ever.

Probably a couple of hundred years, and only the expensive stuff will remain. Miners will pay more and more, and so they should. Au manufacturing is being depleted, by mining stealing employees. So fair is fair.
Mining needs slowing down, it's overheating, to many chooks in one shed.
The miners won't care if the place explodes. A total mining economy does not make economic sense. Infrastructure for mining is a narrow benefit for community, and in the billions