Sustainable Utilization of Geospheric Mineral Resources

An essential part of Earth s natural capital consists of minerals containing metals and other essential raw materials that the geosphere provides for use by humans. Important considerations in utilizing mineral resources include a finite supply of essential minerals, the need to utilize less rich sources of minerals as better sources are depleted, and environmental damage associated with mineral exploitation. There are numerous kinds of mineral deposits that are used in various ways. The most available deposits have already been exploited. As the more available mineral resources are exploited, a migor challenge is to find sustainable ways to utilize available resources in a cost-effective manner that is consistent with maximum conservation of the resource, environmental protection, and material recycling. 

In order to make their extraction worthwhile, sources of minerals mnst be those that are enriched at a particnlar location in Earth s crnst relative to their average percentage abundance in Earth s crust. Such an enriched deposit is called an ore, a term usually applied to metal deposits. The value of an ore is expressed in terms of a concentration factor  

Metals have a wide variety of properties and nses. The metals in ores occur in a number of different componnds in some cases, two or more compounds are significant mineral sources of the same metal. Usually, these compounds are oxides or sulfides. However, other kinds of compounds and, in the cases of gold and platinnm-group metals, the elemental (native) metals themselves serve as metal ores. Table 11.1 lists the important metals and their properties, major nses, and sources. 

FIGURE 11.4 Average pereentage of copper in ore that has been mined. 

Aluminum metal products, autos, electrical transmission 

---