You can not dig out time, store it or transport it. That is why it is not a resource, especially finite.
You can set how much you want it in the begining - with the game's limits, setting the start date at year 0001 - you could make it to almost 9000 years. Start it at year 8000 - you have roughly a 1000 year old campaign at max.
However, you cannot change that later on, no technology or any other in-game decision allows you to alter the date.
Labor, Materials, Equipment is what you work with. Time is an environment.
There is a whole science about it
Hm... what's the name of that science? Any links that we could read up on?
Also, there are no perfect systems that are 100% efficient. Every time you'll lose something due to involved processes.
True...
But, according to the laws of physics, resources lost are simply converted into other forms of energy. Energy cannot be destroyed or created, just converted.
Considering that wealth is... not exactly a real resource, but rather a financial capability (made up of various means like contracts, stock market manipulations and etc.) to attract workers, labor and other resources, it does not follow the typical resource loss and conversion. So, wealth disappearing into thin air - I can accept that.
In terms of actual TN-minerals... where exactly do they go? Sure, they can leave the planet and end up in cosmos - but at this point I'll ask why do we not have 'TN element extractors' - gathering elements from cosmos? Also, while we are on this topic - how exactly the typical TN mines are working? Some folks assume that it must be quite different to the conventional minerals that we are extracting via mining in real life. It makes me think that TN mineral mines are actually magnets, attracting TN minerals, considering that no such thing as pollution from TN mines are mentioned...