MINERAL RESOURCES

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MINERAL RESOURCES
The Costs Benefits of


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Mineral Resources
Backbone of modern societies Availability a measure of a societys wealth Important in peoples daily life as well as in overall economy Processed materials from minerals account for 5 of the U.S. GDP Mineral resources are nonrenewable
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Mineral Value

• Direct value
• Raw, recycles
• Import, export
• Indirect value
• Processes
• Value added
• E.g., agriculture

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Common Use of Mineral Products
METALLIC
NON-METALLIC
HYDROCARBON
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Mineral Resources and Reserves
Resource Usable economic commodity extracted
from naturally formed material (elements,
compounds, minerals, or rocks)
Reserve Portion of a resource that is
identified and currently available to be
extracted legally and profitably

• Defining factors
• Geology, technology, economy, and legality

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Resources and Reserves

• Political football (e.g., Montana coal)
• Consider the effects on US RR of the recent fall
  in crude oil price
• Reserves fall, resource falls
• Reserves fall, resource constant
• Reserves constant, resource falls
• Reserves rise, resource falls
• Reserves rise, resource constant

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Mineral Resources Problems

• Nonrenewable resources
• Finite amount of mineral resources and growing
  demands for the resources
• Supply shortage due to global industrialization
• More developed countries consuming
  disproportionate share of mineral resources
• Erratic distribution of the resources and uneven
  consumption of the resources.
• Highly developed countries use most of the
  resources supply varies

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Major Import Sources (Table 14.2)

• Friends
• Canada Metals
• United Kingdom platinum, rare earths
• Other
• China graphite, tin, tungsten
• South Africa platinum, fluorspar
• Chile arsenic, iodine

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Responses to Limited Availability

• Find more sources
• Find a substitute
• Recycle
• Use less and make more efficient use of what is
  available
• Do without

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Geology of Mineral Resources

• Metallic ore Useful metallic minerals that can
  be mined for a profit
• Technology, economics, and politics
• Concentration factor
• Concentration necessary for profitable mining,
  e.g., for gold is about 5000
• Variable with types of metals
• Variable over time

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Genesis of Mineral Resources
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Plate Tectonics and Mineral Resources

• Plate boundaries
• related to the origins of many ore deposits
• Plate tectonic processes
• high temperature pressure
• partial melting
• promote release and enrichment of metals along
  plate boundaries
• Common metal ores at plate boundaries
• Fe, Au, Cu, and Hg, etc.

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Example Mid-ocean ridge

• Circulation of sea water
• Salty and metallic
• Heated, then cooled
• Precipitates ores
• Can we mine MOR deposits?
• What happens at subduction zones?

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What explains Urals, S. Africa?
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Intrusive Igneous Deposits (Silverton)

• Major source of metals and mineral wealth

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Mineral Resources and Environmental Impact

• Environmental impact
• From mineral exploration and testing
• From mineral mining
• From mineral resources refining
• From mining waste disposal

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Environment Impact of Mineral Development

• The impact depends upon many factors
• Mining procedures
• Hydrologic conditions
• Climate factors
• Types of rocks and soils
• Topography
• Also population NIMBY

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Impact of Mineral Exploration and Testing

• Mineral exploration and testing
• Surface mapping, geochemical, geophysical, and
  remote-sensing data collection
• Test drilling
• Impact
• Generally minimal impact
• More planning and care needed for sensitive areas
  (arid, wetlands, and permafrost areas)

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Impact of Mineral Extractionand Processing (1)
General impact Direct impact on land, water, air, and biological environment Indirect impact on the environment Topographic effect, transportation of materials, etc. Impact on social environment Increased demands for housing and services
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Impact of Mineral Extraction Processing

• Impact from mining operations
• Land disturbances
• Waste from mines 40 of the mining area for
  waste disposal, mining waste 40 of all solid
  wastes
• Special mining, e.g., chemical leaching from gold
  mining
• Mining acid drainage, during mining and
  post-mining

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Impact of Mineral Extractionand Processing (4)

• Water pollution
• Trace elements leach into water
• Cd, Co, Cu, Pb, Mo, Zn
• Flooding of abandoned mines
• oxidation of sulfide ores sulfuric acid
• Acid mine drainage from tailings

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Minimizing the Impact of Mining (1)

• Knowledge and technology transfer
• developed countries ? developing countries
• Environmental Regulations
• Forbid bad mining practices
• Clean Air Act
• on- and offsite treatment of wastes
• Land reclamation
• 50 of land used in mining industry reclaimed
• Use of new biotechnology in mining
• Bio-oxidation, bioleaching, bio-absorption,
  genetic engineering

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Minimizing the Impact of Mining (2)
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Recycling Mineral Resources (1)

• Why recycle? Consider the impact of the wastes
• Toxic to humans
• Dangerous to natural ecosystems
• Degradation of air, water, and soil
• Use of land for disposal
• Aesthetically undesirable

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Recycling Mineral Resources (2)
Waste contains recyclable materials Saves energy, money, land, raw mineral resources from more mining Saves energy and money when recycling instead of refining raw ore materials Recycling has been proven to be profitable and workable
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Recycling Mineral Resources (3)

• Most-recycled metals
• Iron and steel, 90 by weight
• Producing steel from recycled scrap
• 1/3 as much energy needed to as from original ore
• More than 40 billion produced from recycled
  metals in 1998
• Other recycled metals
• Lead (63)
• Aluminum (38)
• Copper (36)

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Minerals and Sustainability

• Sustainability long-term strategy for consuming
  the resources
• Find an alternative material for the metal
• glass fiber cable for copper wires
• Use raw materials more efficiently
• More Research Development
• Innovative substitutes
• Ways to maintain the ResourceConsumption
• A solution to the depletion of nonrenewable
  resources

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Questions

• Considering the fact that mineral resources are
  nonrenewable
• Do you believe that technology will eventually
  help to meet the growing demand for mineral
  resources?
• If yes, explain.
• Biotechnology shows the potential for cleaner
  minerals extraction and waste disposal.
• Could biotechnology bring about any environmental
  problems?
• What types of environmental impact would occur
  ifwe increasingly extract more mineral resources
  from the seafloor?