World production, minerals

Table 2. 1992 World Production of Principal Mineral Commodities...

The estimated value of world cmde mineral production in 1992 was 1.6 trillion ia terms of 1992 dollars, a tenfold increase since 1950 in terms of constant dollars (4). This represents the value of mineral materials as mined or otherwise extracted from the earth, and does not reflect the value added through processing. The aimual world consumption of selected mineral commodities for 1992 is given in Table 4. 

Economic Aspects and Uses. Total world production of potassium products is 29,000,000 tons per year (65). Potassium chloride is removed from brine at Moab, and Wendover, Utah, and at Seades Lake, California. Potassium sulfate is made from Great Salt Lake brine by Great Salt Lake Minerals Corp., which is the largest producer of solar potassium sulfate in the wodd. Combined, these U.S. faciUties stiU produce a relatively small percentage of potash fertilizers in the wodd. Production from the Dead Sea, for example, is 10 times greater than production of potassium from brines in the United States. More than 95% of all the potassium produced is used in fertilizer blends. The remainder is converted to other potassium chemicals for industdal use (see Potassium compounds). 

Talc, unlike Che micas, consists of electrically neutral layers without the interleaving cations. It is valued for its softness, smoothrtess and dry lubricating properties, and for its whitertess, chermcal inertness and foliated structure. Its most important abdications are in ceramics, insecticides, paints and paper manufacture. The more familiar use in cosmetics and toilet preparations accounts for only 3% of world production which is about 5 Mt per annum. Half of this comes from Japan and the USA. and other major producers are Korea, the former Soviet Union, France and China. Talc and its more massive mineral form soapstone or steatite arc widely distributed throughout the world and many countries produce it for domestic consumption either by open-cast or underground mining. 

Strontium compounds, 23 319-324 estimated distribution of, 23 3201 world production of, 23 319-320 Strontium cyanide, 8 197 Strontium ferrate (1 1), 5 598 Strontium fluoride, 23 323 Strontium fluoroborate tetrahydrate, 4 153 Strontium halides, 23 323 Strontium hexaferrite, 23 323 Strontium hydride, 13 613 Strontium hydroxide, 23 324 Strontium iodide, 23 323 Strontium-lead alloys, 14 779 Strontium minerals, 23 320 producers of, 23 319 Strontium nitrate, 23 319, 321, 323 Strontium oxide, 23 318, 324 Strontium peroxide, 18 396, 23 324 Strontium-silicon alloy, 22 520 Strontium sulfate, 23 322, 324 Strontium sulfide, 23 322 Strontium titanate... 

Titanium dioxide is a large industrial commodity with world production over 4,000,000 tons but only a very small proportion is used as a food colorant. Commercial Ti02 is produced from the mineral ilmanite, which occurs in three crystalline forms, but the only one approved for food use is synthetic anatase. Anatase occurs in nature but only the synthetic version is approved because it contains fewer impurities.41... 

Practically all world production of newly smelted aluminum was made from bauxite. The term bauxite is used for naturally occurring mixtures of aluminum monohydrate (boehmite or diaspore) and trihydrate gibbsite Al(OH)3, including impurities which are typically clay minerals, free silica, iron hydroxides and titania. The luminescence ofboehmite and diaspore and LIBS (Fig. 8.10) maybe used for the detection, sorting and commercial value evaluation of A1 minerals. 

Iron (III) oxide exists in mineral form as hematite. It is 70% iron and is the primary source of iron ore in the world. About 90% of the iron mined in the United States is hematite. World production of this ore is more than 1 billion tons. Magnetite and taconite are two other primary iron oxide minerals used as iron ore. The name hematite comes from the blood-red color of powdered hematite. The Greek word hematite means blood-like. Some ancients held the belief that hematite was formed in areas where batdes were fought and blood was spilled into the earth. Large deposits of hematite have been identified on Mars. 

Kig. 1. Ptedteted world production of mineral oil and coal in coal equivalents <2S700 kJ/kg)... 

World sulfur reserves. The earth s crust contains about 0.6% S, where it occurs as elemental S (brimstone) in deposits associated with gypsum and calcite combined S in metal sulfide ores and mineral sulfates as a contaminant in natural gas and crude oils as pyritic and organic compounds in coal and as organic compounds in tar sands (Tisdale and Nelson, 1966). The elemental form commonly occurs near active or extinct volcanoes, or in association with hot mineral spings. Estimates by Holser and Kaplan (1966) of the terrestrial reservoirs of S suggest that about 50% of crustal S is present in relatively mobile reservoirs such as sea water, evaporites, and sediments. The chief deposits of S in the form of brimstone and pyrites are in Western European countries, particularly in France, Spain, Poland, Japan, Russia, U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico. World production of S in the form of brimstone and pyrites was approximately 41 Tg in 1973 other sources accounted for about 8 Tg, making a total of 49 Tg (Anon, 1973). Byproduct S from sour-gas, fossil fuel combustion, and other sources now accounts for over 50% of S used by western countries, as shown in Fig. 9.1. This percentage may increase as pollution abatement measures increase the removal of SO2 from fossil fuel, particularly in the U.S.A. Atmospheric S, returned to the earth in rainwater, is also a very important source of S for plants. 

Prior to 1960, world production of potassium chloride was dominated by the U.S.S.R., U.S.A., East and West Germany, and France (Table 6.5). But since the incidental discovery of potash mineralization in Saskatchewan during oil prospecting in 1943, and the first commercial production there in 1962, Canada became the world s leading producer in 1968 and 1969. Canada is at present the leading producer and exporter, followed by Belarus as the second largest producer of potash. 

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