Mineral Supply

5 Key excerpts on "Mineral Supply"

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  eBook - ePub

  Natural Resources

  Allocation, Economics and Policy

  • Judith Rees(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  3Minerals: distribution, production and economics

  Introduction

  Few would deny that mineral exploitation has played an important role in generating industrial development and economic growth. This is not, however, to suggest that the existence of minerals per se has any deterministic power over the scale or the location of economic development. To suggest as much ignores the crucial role that man and his demands, technology and institutions play in imparting resource value to ‘neutral stuff. Before minerals can attain any value or generate any growth, they have to be located, extracted and converted into usable products for which a demand exists, and delivered to consumers in the required quantities and qualities at the needed times and locations. By the time they are usable most must be regarded as manmade products, marketable only after the investment of considerable amounts of capital, energy and labour.

  Patterns of mineral exploration, exploitation, refining and trade cannot be explained simplistically in terms of the physical endowments of various countries, but require study of the way resource investment decisions are made and of the factors influencing the decision-making process. Who makes such investment decisions? What are their objectives? And how far are they subject to political pressures? These are all important questions which must be addressed during any meaningful attempt to understand mineral developments, their location and scale. The operations of mining corporations, international financial institutions, mineral purchasing companies and governments are critical factors explaining the spatial pattern of mineral production. In the same way, study of the role of natural resources as a generator of economic development must go far beyond the outlining of patterns of ownership and trade. There is a need to assess the way in which market structure, corporate and institutional behaviour and government policies influence not only the value of individual mineral deposits, but also the proportion of the generated wealth and growth which accrues to the producer states.

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  Mineral 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...

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  Mineral Resources and Sustainability Assessment

  • Vierah Hulley(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Delve Publishing

    (Publisher)

  The use of mineral resources, the need for conservation of mineral resources, and the steps for conservation of mineral resources are explained in detail. The im-portant physical properties of mineral resources are explained in detail. The concept of SD, the importance of sustainability, guidelines for SD, and the environmental impact of mineral exploration has been explained in detail. 1.1. INTRODUCTION TO MINERAL RESOURCES The fundamental need of any country and every citizen across the globe is to safeguard the environment. There is a need to preserve the environment and protect it from the damages that are caused to conserve it for the future generations. This concept holds right for all the countries across the globe, including the mining, mineral exporting, and industrialized country. There is a need for all the countries to work in coordination with one another to achieve a global strategy of achieving sustainable development (SD). This holds true to all the mineral producing and exporting countries (Figure 1.1). Figure 1.1: Minerals. Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Different_min-erals.jpg Introduction to Mineral Resources and Sustainability Assessment 3 There are several countries like, Australia, Guinea, and Venezuela, etc. that are present in different parts of the world which are involved in exporting of several metallic resources and are highly industrialized. 1.1.1. Definition of Minerals A mineral is a naturally occurring, inorganic substance with a particular chemical composition and crystalline structure. There are different types of minerals. Some of the important types of the minerals are quartz, feldspar, and mica. There are different applications of minerals, and some of the common uses of minerals are their applications in several household articles such as stainless utensils, reading glasses and jewelry. Minerals are also used in the construction of buildings and different types of space shuttles.

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  The First British-Soviet Geographical Seminar

  • F. E. Ian Hamilton(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Pergamon

    (Publisher)

  Geoforum, Vol. 10, pp. 323-332,1979. Pergamon Press Ltd. Printed in Great Britain. The Geography of Mineral Supply: The Mainsprings of Future Uncertainties* G E R A L D MANNERS''', London, U.K. Abstract: This paper suggests that the major uncertainties overhanging the future geo- graphy of Mineral Supply in the non-Communist world derive from intellectual rather than resource inadequacies. In particular, the paucity of medium-term, macro-economic fore- casts of growth in the economies of the OECD seriously undermine the value of mineral- demand forecasts. At the same time, the altered investment climate for mineral exploration and development will have a substantial impact upon mineral supplies, but its magnitude and geography remain a matter for dispute. And, third, the future pattern of mineral trade, shaped by the shifting geography of mineral-processing activities and metal manufacture, continues to elude convincing analysis. Introduction Many uncertainties underlie the future markets for minerals in the non-Communist world be- tween now and the year 2000. In the wake of the rapid economic growth and c o m m o d i t y price b o o m of the early 1970s, there was m u c h speculation on the possibility of long-term and severe physical shortages of minerals (MEADOWS, 1972). Since the oil price rises of 1973 and 1974, there has been some concern that international mineral-producer associ- ations will in time seek to replicate the achieve- ments of OPEC (CORBETT, 1975). And following the initiatives of UNCTAD, the 1974 Commonwealth Conference in Jamaica and the continuing North—South dialogue, a search continues for new and acceptable bases upon which the trading relationships of the develop- ing countries and the industrially advanced world might be shaped (KIRKPATRICK and NIXSON, 1976).

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  Fundamentals of Environmental and Toxicological Chemistry

  Sustainable Science, Fourth Edition

  • Stanley E. Manahan(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  Coinciding roughly with the “energy crisis” of the early to mid-1970s, demand slowed. Now, however, the emergence of newly developing economies, par-ticularly those in the highly populous countries of China and India, is causing a greatly increasing demand for strategic minerals. To a degree, the economic demand for and the price of a resource determine its availability. Higher prices lead to greater exploration, exploitation of less available resources, and often spec-tacular increases in supply. This phenomenon has led to the misinterpretation of the resource supply and demand equation by authorities whose understanding of economics is limited to only conven-tional monetary supply and demand models, without due consideration of sustainability aspects. The fact is that the total available amounts of most resources are limited, painfully so in terms of 292 Fundamentals of Environmental and Toxicological Chemistry the time span over which they will be needed by humankind. Although higher prices and improved technologies can increase supplies of critical resources significantly, the ultimate result will be the same: the resource will run out. Furthermore, exploitation of lower and lower grades of resources results in ever-increasing environmental disruption, adding significantly to the cost considering environmental economics. Mineral resources may be divided into several categories based on current production and con-sumption and known reserves. In the first category are those minerals that are in relatively comfort-able supply, with supply of at least 100 to several hundred years. Minerals in this category include bauxite, the source of aluminum; iron ore; platinum-group metals; and potassium salts. In an inter-mediate category are minerals with a current projected lifetime supply of 25–100 years. These include chromium, cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel, gypsum, phosphate minerals, and sulfur.

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