Written for students and professionals, this revised textbook surveys the mineral industry from geological, environmental and economic perspectives. Thoroughly updated, the text includes a new chapter on technology industry metals as well as separate chapters on mineral economics and environmental geochemistry. Carefully designed figures simplify difficult concepts and show the location of important deposits and trade patterns, emphasising the true global nature of mineral resources. Featuring boxes highlighting special interest topics, the text equips students with the skills they need to contribute to the energy and mineral questions currently facing society, including issues regarding oil pipelines, nuclear power plants, water availability and new mining locations. Technical terms are highlighted when first used, and references are included to allow students to delve more deeply into areas of interest. Multiple choice and short answer questions are provided for instructors online at www.cambridge.org/kesler to complete the teaching package.

The challenges associated with the environmental impact of renewable energies are formidable and multiple. The exploitation of diffuse forms of energy will require us to reshape our lifestyles and infrastructures. Reducing their environmental impact is imperative and requires the mobilization of all available levers of action. Beyond the analysis of these challenges, this book presents an overview of the levers of action that should allow us to meet them, by crossing the fields of the human sciences, geosciences and engineering. The levers of action examined are both technical (through the substitution or use of low technology) and economic and social (through the development of recycling or decoupling). The book also addresses the question of their effectiveness and their overall impact.

It is widely believed that natural mineral resources are desirable. However there is growing evidence that this may not always be the case. Indeed, it seems that natural assets can distort the economy to such a degree that the benefit actually becomes a curse. In Sustaining Development in Mineral Economies, Richard Auty highlights these drawbacks and the devastating effect they can have on developing economies. With reference to six ore-exporters (viz. Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Jamaica, Zambia and Papua New Guinea) he outlines how things can go badly wrong. He particularly stresses the need to avoid `Dutch Disease' whereby competitiveness is drained out of the agriculture and manufacturing sectors so that in the long term growth falters.

For any country’s economy, mineral resources form an important part in generating revenue and increasing its GDP. Therefore, learning the economics behind mines and minerals becomes mandatory and logical. This book investigates and promotes understanding of economic and policy issues, programmes and strategies for exploration, mining, beneficiation and marketing activities. Divided into ten chapters, the book puts emphasis on elaborating the principles of mine and mineral economics. The introductory chapter discusses the scope of the subject and the issues addressed by it. Outline of reserve-resource dynamics and the recent approaches towards estimating ore-reserves are then elaborated, followed by a discussion on mineral availability. Focus is then shifted to more technical and quantitative aspects of mineral sampling. Issues relating to mineral property evaluation and project feasibility assessment are then taken up. Both quantitative and logical aspects of mine finance and accounting have been discussed. Nitty-gritties of mine taxation are further outlined and the reader is introduced to aspects relating to marketing and trading of minerals. Distinctive features of the mineral policies of a few countries are highlighted while discussing the characteristic features of a national mineral policy. The last chapter of this book is on mineral industry and the environment.

Minerals are part of virtually every product we use. Common examples include copper used in electrical wiring and titanium used to make airplane frames and paint pigments. The Information Age has ushered in a number of new mineral uses in a number of products including cell phones (e.g., tantalum) and liquid crystal displays (e.g., indium). For some minerals, such as the platinum group metals used to make cataytic converters in cars, there is no substitute. If the supply of any given mineral were to become restricted, consumers and sectors of the U.S. economy could be significantly affected. Risks to minerals supplies can include a sudden increase in demand or the possibility that natural ores can be exhausted or become too difficult to extract. Minerals are more vulnerable to supply restrictions if they come from a limited number of mines, mining companies, or nations. Baseline information on minerals is currently collected at the federal level, but no established methodology has existed to identify potentially critical minerals. This book develops such a methodology and suggests an enhanced federal initiative to collect and analyze the additional data needed to support this type of tool.

The constant increase in the consumption of mineral resources, as well as the growing awareness of their exploitation, is causing deep concern within the scientific community. This concern is justified by the fact that the energy transition will increase the pressure on these resources, as renewable energies require an increased and more diversified quantity of mineral materials. This book presents an overview of the exploitation of these mineral resources, where the natural, regulatory and environmental constraints interfere with economic, financial and geopolitical interests. By mobilizing the fields of the humanities, geosciences and engineering, it also analyzes the challenges that the energy transition will encounter, challenges related to the contradictory effects that the acceleration of the extraction of these resources will have on their physical availability, the economies that exploit them and the populations that live off of them

This book discusses mineral economies in Botswana, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Jamaica, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago.