  The Hubert's model has been introduced in 1956 as a phenomenological
description of the time evolution of US oil fields production. It has since
then acquired a vast notoriety as a conceptual approach to resource depletion.
It is often invoked nowadays in the context of the energy transition to
question the limitations induced by the finitude of mineral stocks. Yet, its
validity is often controversial despite its popularity. This paper offers a
pedagogical introduction to the model, assesses its ability to describe the
current evolution of 20 mining elements, and discusses the nature and
robustness of conclusions drawn from Hubbert's model considered either as a for
cast or as a foresight tool. We propose a novel way to represent graphically
these conclusions as a "Hubbert's map" which offers direct visualization of
their main features.
