Environmental Quality Control and Minerals: ABSTRACT

Abstract

In the past several years protection of the environment has become a major factor affecting the production, transportation, and utilization of all types of mineral commodities. Examples of its effects are found throughout the minerals industry. Zoning restrictions and public pressures are barring the production of industrial minerals from some of the most favorable sites; proposals have been made to prohibit further offshore drilling for oil and gas; and strip mining of coal has been prohibited in steep terrain. Concern for environmental damage is delaying construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and the availability of an important new source of crude oil. Air quality controls that have been proposed or placed in effect are of such a nature as to eliminate the us of much of the coal and residual oil now being consumed and ban the use of lead in gasoline as an antiknock additive. The steady increase in the number and scope of environmental regulations will have widespread effects. They will affect the availability of resources and change the methods and sources of mineral production, which will result in shifts in the patterns of mineral consumption and, inevitably, increased costs to the consumer. End_of_Article - Last_Page 360------------