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Yes, Deffeys is doubtful that Skinner's barrier exists as a general feature. It is also true that we lack complete data of concentration vs abundance for most minerals. But I think that Skinner makes a very convincing case in his papers. Uranium is something special, for one thing it doesn't form natural sulphides; the most common case of ores. Anyway, as you say, the mineralogical barrier is a limitation to minerals availability, but the problems would remain even if it didn't exits. Thanks for the note about diamonds from the seafloor!
Thanks for your response. Although not a sulfide-former, uranium does form extremely concentrated oxide ores, some so concentrated that they have even gone critical in the past (Oklo phenomenon), so I'm not sure how atypical it is as an ore-former. Many other useful rare metals (e.g., tungsten, tin, beryllium, vanadium, chromium, thorium, lanthanides) likewise don't typically form sulfide ores, and likewise vary greatly in their concentrations in rocks.
My main concern is that you may be making the mistake of the economists in reverse - they assume that petroleum must have a very long concentration tail like metals do, and therefore can't peak if the price goes up sufficiently, whereas you seem to be assuming that all metals must behave like petroleum, with little or no such tail at ore grades, and therefore must peak. Peak energy availablility alone seems reason enough for peak metals, without assuming a poorly-documented bimodal geological underpinning (which might well be valid for some metals, such as mercury, the only liquid metal, but not for others).