Geography
Mineral Resources
Mineral resources refer to naturally occurring substances found in the earth that have economic value. These resources include metals, such as gold and copper, as well as non-metallic materials like salt and sand. They are essential for various industries, including construction, manufacturing, and energy production, and play a crucial role in shaping the economic and geopolitical landscape of a region.
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11 Key excerpts on "Mineral Resources"
eBook - PDFMineral Economics
Development and Management of Natural Resources
- O. Rudawsky(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Elsevier Science(Publisher)
(p.l). In this book, the emphasis is put on the fifth and sixth classes, although the other groups, and especially human resources (somehow not included in Howe's list), are not totally ignored. One of the frequent definitions of Mineral Resources, as commonly used by mineral industry people, is ...A concentration of naturally occurring solid, liquid, or gaseous materials in or on the earth's crust in such form that economic ex-traction of a commodity is currently or potentially feasible... (U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1974, p. 2). This definition is one of several similar used by different segments of the industry, as demonstrated by the following example: ...the term (Mineral Resources) will be taken to include all non-living, naturally occurring substances that are useful to man whether they are inorganic or organic. Thus, all natural crystalline solids, fossil fuels such as petroleum and natural gas, as well as the waters of the earth and gases of the atmosphere fall under this definition of Mineral Resources... (McDivitt, 1965, p. 10) The problem with these definitions seems to be their restrictive scope. Specifically, (1) they tend to totally ignore nonmineral substances such as solar energy, timber, and fisheries. Also ignored is the human element that plays a vital role in developing and utilizing natural resources. (2) These definitions look at natural resources as a static stock, an inventory of a finite amount of tangible substances. Several scholars feel that the narrow point-of-view of the above definitions is causing wide-spread misconceptions. Professor Erich W. Zimmermann, for example in his book World Resources and Industries, strongly attacks these restrictive approaches. Citing a four-line verse he saw years ago in John Bull's pub in England, he says: ...The world is a bundle of hay. Mankind are the asses that pull. Each tugs it a different way, and the greatest of all is John Bull...
eBook - PDF- Laurence Robb(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
xvii Introduction: Mineral Resources TOPICS General introduction and aims of the book A simple classification scheme for mineral deposits Some important definitions metallogeny, syngenetic, epigenetic, mesothermal, epithermal, supergene, hypogene, etc. Some relevant compilations periodic table of the elements tables of the main ore and gangue minerals geological time scale Factors that make a viable mineral deposit enrichment factors required to make ore deposits how are Mineral Resources and ore reserves defined? Natural resources and their future exploitation sustainability environmental responsibility Introduction and Aims With a global population in 2019 of close to eight billion people, and this figure set to increase to some ten billion by 2050, it is apparent that the world’s economies are under growing pressure to meet the demands of an increasingly materialistic lifestyle. The unprecedented growth of human popula- tion over the past century has resulted in a dramatic increase in demand for, and pro- duction of, natural resources – it is therefore evident that understanding the nature, ori- gin, and distribution of the world’s mineral deposits remains a vital and strategic topic. The discipline of “economic geology,” which covers all aspects pertaining to the description and understanding of Mineral Resources, is, therefore, one which traditionally has been, and should remain, a core component of the university earth science curriculum. It is also the discipline that underpins the training of professional earth scientists working in the minerals and related industries of the world. Unfortunately, a tendency at many universities in the recent past has been to treat economic geology as a vocational topic, and to provide instruction only to those individuals who wished to specialize in the discipline or to follow a career in the minerals industry.
eBook - ePub- Laurence Robb(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
Introduction: Mineral Resources
Topics
General introduction and aims of the book A simple classification scheme for mineral deposits Some important definitions- metallogeny, syngenetic, epigenetic, mesothermal, epithermal, supergene, hypogene, etc.
- periodic table of the elements
- tables of the main ore and gangue minerals
- geological time scale
- enrichment factors required to make ore deposits
- how are Mineral Resources and ore reserves defined?
- sustainability
- environmental responsibility
Introduction and Aims
With a global population in 2019 of close to eight billion people, and this figure set to increase to some ten billion by 2050, it is apparent that the world's economies are under growing pressure to meet the demands of an increasingly materialistic lifestyle. The unprecedented growth of human population over the past century has resulted in a dramatic increase in demand for, and production of, natural resources – it is therefore evident that understanding the nature, origin, and distribution of the world's mineral deposits remains a vital and strategic topic. The discipline of “economic geology,” which covers all aspects pertaining to the description and understanding of Mineral Resources, is, therefore, one which traditionally has been, and should remain, a core component of the university earth science curriculum. It is also the discipline that underpins the training of professional earth scientists working in the minerals and related industries of the world. Unfortunately, a tendency at many universities in the recent past has been to treat economic geology as a vocational topic, and to provide instruction only to those individuals who wished to specialize in the discipline or to follow a career in the minerals industry. There has been a trend, at least in many parts of the world, to sideline economic geology both as a taught discipline and a research topic.
eBook - PDFEarth Science
An Introduction
- Mark Hendrix, Graham Thompson, Mark Hendrix(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
iurii/Shutterstock.com 87 5 GEOLOGIC RESOURCES Offshore drilling platforms for oil and gas exploration below the seafloor. Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 88 CHAPTER 5 Geologic Resources energy resources of the early 21st century are coal, petroleum, and natural gas—all formed from the decayed remains of pre- historic plants and animals that have been altered by Earth systems processes. Mineral Resources Mineral Resources include both metal ore and nonmetallic minerals. Recall from Chapter 2 that ore is rock sufficiently enriched in one or more minerals to be mined profitably. Geologists usually use the term to refer to metallic mineral deposits, and it is commonly accompanied by the name of the metal—for example, iron ore or silver ore. Nonmetallic Mineral Resources refer to the use- ful rocks or minerals that are not metals—such as salt, building stone, sand, and gravel. When we think about “striking it rich” from mining, we usually think of gold. In 2016—the most recent year for which figures are avail- able—the USGS estimated that the value of all the gold mined in the United States that year was $8.5 billion. However, the USGS also estimated in 2016 that more revenue was generated from mining gravel, sand, and crushed rock in the United States ($8.9 billion). Sand and gravel are mined from stream and glacial deposits, sand dunes, and beaches, whereas crushed stone is quarried from nonweathered igneous, metamorphic, or sedimen- tary bedrock.
eBook - PDF- G. Miller, Scott Spoolman(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
This zone contains the Mineral Resources on which society depends. Minerals and Rocks The earth’s crust beneath our feet consists mostly of miner- als and rocks. A mineral is a naturally occurring chemical element or inorganic compound that exists as a solid with a regularly repeating internal arrangement of its atoms or ions (a crystalline solid). A mineral resource is a concen- tration of one or more minerals in the crust that is large enough to cover the cost of extracting and processing it into raw materials and useful products. Because miner- als take millions of years to form, they are nonrenewable resources, and their supplies can be depleted. Technically, these resources are renewable but in terms of human use, they are viewed as nonrenewable resources because their renewal takes millions of years. A few minerals consist of a single chemical element such as gold (Core Case Study and Figure 2.3, right). However, most of the more than 2,000 identified Mineral Resources that we use are inorganic compounds formed by various combinations of elements. Examples include quartz (silicon dioxide, or 2 SiO ) and salt (sodium chloride, or NaCl). Rock is a solid combination of one or more minerals found in the earth’s crust. Some kinds of rock, such as lime- stone (calcium carbonate, or 3 CaCO ) and quartzite (silicon dioxide, or 2 SiO ), contain only one mineral, but most rocks consist of two or more minerals. Granite, for example, is a mixture of mica, feldspar, and quartz crystals. Based on the way they form, rocks are classified as sed- imentary, igneous, or metamorphic. Sedimentary rock Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience.
eBook - PDF- Sam Stuart(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Pergamon(Publisher)
2 Resources and Raw Materials Defined Introduction One cannot discuss any problem without understanding the terms employed in the discussion. This applies particularly to resources and raw materials, because many differences of opinion - for example, concerning the length of time that minerals can be expected to last - are attributable to the use of different concepts. In the present chapter, the terms are discussed with reference to figure 2. Substances are elements, chemical compounds or mixtures having specific chemical or physical properties. Natural resources are those substances in the soil, water or the atmosphere which in principle can or could be used by man. In the ultimate analysis a natural resource represents the properties possessed by certain substances or combinations of substances, e.g. having a certain electrical conductivity, being hard or being resistant to acids. This becomes particularly apparent when soil, air or water are referred to as natural resources, because the important thing may well be, not the actual substances present in the resource but the properties of those substances - for example, being a basis of biological production (soil, water ), or having the capacity to absorb and carry off substances(water). 'Resources' are those parts of natural resources which are known and accessible and which it is believed can, come to be used under foreseeable technological and economic conditions. Reserves are those parts of resources which are already sufficiently known and accessible to be utilized profitably with the available technology. Raw materials, finally, aqp substances or mixtures of substances which, in one form or another, are used in industrial or other processes in order to manufacture a product. We may already here observe that the raw material, reserve and resource concepts are not timeless. New technology and changes in the prices of raw materials may have the effect of widening the resource base.
eBook - PDFResources Society and the Future
A Report Prepared for the Swedish Secretariat for Futures Studies By
- Tomas Bertelman, Ernst Hollander, Carl-Axel Olsson(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Pergamon(Publisher)
2 Resources and Raw Materials Defined Introduction One cannot discuss any problem without understanding the terms employed in the discussion. This applies particularly to resources and raw materials, because many differences of opinion - for example, concerning the length of time that minerals can be expected to last - are attributable to the use of different concepts. In the present chapter, the terms are discussed with reference to figure 2. Substances are elements, chemical compounds or mixtures having specific chemical or physical properties. Natural resources are those substances in the soil, water or the atmosphere which in principle can or could be used by man. In the ultimate analysis a natural resource represents the properties possessed by certain substances or combinations of substances, e.g. having a certain electrical conductivity, being hard or being resistant to acids. This becomes particularly apparent when soil, air or water are referred to as natural resources, because the important thing may well be, not the actual substances present in the resource but the properties of those substances - for example, being a basis of biological production (soil, water ), or having the capacity to absorb and carry off substances(water). Resources* are those parts of natural resources which are known and accessible and which it is believed can, come to be used under foreseeable technological and economic conditions. Reserves are those parts of resources which are already sufficiently known and accessible to be utilized profitably with the available technology. Raw materials, finally, are substances or mixtures of substances which, in one form or another, are used in industrial or other processes in order to manufacture a product. We may already here observe that the raw material, reserve and resource concepts are not timeless. New technology and changes in the prices of raw materials may have the effect of widening the resource base.
- Nigel Woodcock(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
III EARTH RESOURCES FOR SOCIETY Chapter Five RESOURCES 5.1 Types of geological resources Coal, oil and gas, minerals and rocks: these are typical geological resources. They are usually considered to be non-renewable, with society progressively depleting a fixed stock of each commodity. By contrast, water or air are usually termed renewable, because natural processes replenish and recondition the stock as it is used. However, renewability is not a simple measure. All resources are renewable on some timescale. For instance, oil and gas are forming now in the world’s sedimentary basins, and mineral deposits beneath active volcanoes. On the other hand, water from rainfall may not be adequate to refill reservoirs or rock aquifers. A more helpful measure is the sustainability of a resource; whether or not its rate of use exceeds its rate of renewal. Most geological resources are unsustainable, because their formation processes are very slow on a human timescale. Oil is being used at least a million times faster than it is being recreated. Water and land are potentially sustainable resources, but only if managed correctly. Figure 5.1 The McKelvey resource classification scheme. Unsustainable resources make up most of the subsurface materials that geologists are called on to assess. A widely used method for assessing their availability is the McKelvey scheme (Fig. 5.1). In this, the resource base of a commodity is the total amount that exists on Earth. For most commodities this amount is of no practical interest, because much of it could never be economically exploited. The resources represent the part of the resource base that might conceivably be economic in the future. Within this amount, only the reserves are both economic now and identified with some geological certainty. A final fraction, previously part of the reserves, has been already produced and used by society.
- Stephen E. Kesler, Adam C. Simon(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
C H A P T E R 14 Global mineral reserves and resources If history can be our guide, global mineral supplies will be a major factor in future world relations, as well as the focus of important environmental and economic controversies. At the heart of these disputes will be the fundamental questions of how much is left and how long it will last. Throughout this book, we have quoted reserve and resource fi gures, which are half of this equation. It is time now to review the ways that mineral reserves and resources are estimated, and then turn attention to the other side of the equation, mineral consumption. 14.1 Reserve and resource estimation methods Recall from our fi rst chapter that Earth ’ s mineral endowment is referred to as a resource and the part that can be extracted at a pro fi t is known as a reserve ( Figure 1.3 ). Estimates of reserves and resources rely on geology and statistics (Singer and Menzie, 2010 ). Geological approaches range from simple enumeration of known deposits and their probable extensions to more complex assessments based on speci fi c ore deposit types or favorable geological environments. Statistical meth-ods range from those based on assumptions regarding char-acteristics of the population of mineral deposits to others that extrapolate exploration, production, or consumption trends (Wellmer and Becker-Platen, 2002 ; Sinclair and Blackwell, 2006 ; Singer, 2013 ; DeYoung, 2014 ). 14.1.1 Geological estimates Geological estimates are the most traditional and probably the most dependable because they are based on actual observations about rocks. In the simplest method, reserve estimates for individual deposits are collected, evaluated, and compiled to determine the total reserve. Such estimates are useful only for measured and perhaps indicated reserves, and can therefore tell us only how much material has actually been observed and quanti fi ed. Geological estimates of resources are much more complex.
eBook - PDF- David M. Hassenzahl, Mary Catherine Hager, Nancy Y. Gift, Linda R. Berg, Peter H. Raven(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
As developing countries become more industrial- ized, their own mineral requirements increase correspondingly, adding further pressure to a nonrenewable resource. In fact, hu- mans have consumed more minerals since World War II than were consumed in the previous 5000 years, from the beginning of the Bronze Age to the middle of the 20th century (Figure 15.8). Mining in the United States has clearly caused many se- rious environmental problems. The problems in developing countries that rely on mining for a significant part of their 0 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400 2800 3200 3600 World War World War Year Million metric tons Oil crisis Recessions Great Depression Primary metals Recycled metals Industrial minerals Construction materials FIGURE 15.8 Annual U.S. use of raw nonfuel minerals, 1900–2010. Source: USGS National Minerals Information Center (2012). Minerals: An International Perspective 309 Estimates of mineral reserves and resources fluctuate with economic, technological, and political changes. A mineral’s availability can be affected by conflict in regions where it is found. If the price of a mineral on the world market falls, certain borderline mineral reserves may slip into the mineral resource category; increasing prices may restore them to the mineral re- serve category. When new technological methods decrease the cost of extracting ores, deposits ranked in the mineral resource category are reclassified as mineral reserves. If the political sit- uation in a country becomes so unstable that mineral reserves cannot be mined, they are reclassified as Mineral Resources; a later shift toward political stability may cause the minerals to be placed on the mineral reserve list again. It is extremely difficult to forecast future mineral supplies. In the 1970s, projections of escalating demand and impending shortages of many important minerals were commonplace.
eBook - PDFLand, Water and Mineral Resources in Science Education
Science and Technology Education and Future Human Needs
- Norman J. Graves(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Pergamon(Publisher)
TABLE 12.1. Draft Syllabus MINERAL EXPLORATION 237 Although there is still a need for prospecting for valuable commodities in developing countries, the present day metal glut and low prices places commodity-dependent developing countries (e.g. Zambia - copper) in an economic crisis. The developing countries resource needs have changed in the last few years and a more broad mineral resource based background is required on all levels of national development and conservation. This changing role of geosciences in development must be taken into account in the training of the village geologist. This includes the search for industrial minerals, building materials and fertilizers. The tasks are enormous, but a start in this direction, which could have some immediate and tangible results, would be a village geologist training programme for an appropriate, small scale, community-based cottage industry level of involvement (see Table 12.1). This could, in the first instance, concentrate on local industrial minerals (e.g. phosphate for fertilizer and building materials e.g. sand and gravel). Techniques for mineral exploration EILEEN BARRETT In common with most geological formations, orebodies are mixtures or deposits of minerals which formed long before the development of mankind. Orebodies are, however, characterized by their economic value and are to be distinguished from mineral deposits in general which have little or no economic value and cannot be worked profitably. Although they can occur almost anywhere geographically, orebodies are rare and their distribution is irregular. The prosperity of many individuals and nations has long been associated with the ability to find and exploit them. Originally many metal deposits and other orebodies were easily found despite their rarity, because they outcropped or protruded like currants on the surface of a cake. With a little know-how it was possible to 4 'get rich quick.
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