Mineral resources of Asia continent: Resource endowment, mining industry pattern, and contributions to the world economy

Resource abundance and internal armed conflict: Types of natural resources and the incidence of ‘new wars’

This paper examines the existing resources curse in Tanzania with detailed analyses on the controversy. A country with high resources endowments: i.e. about 44 million hectares of arable land, precious minerals, forests resources, water and wildlife but is among the poorest countries in the planet Earth. Here we reviewed over 25 reports, journal papers and books and found that all precious natural resources have insignificant contribution to socio-economic development of the people. The resource curse is confirmed in about all resources as there is no correlation between the quality of life and resources endowments. In recent years, the country has recorded the lowest per capita income at $ 960 with weak purchasing power parity. This declares that all consumptions, investments and government spending are insignificant. In addition, approximately 75% of the population depends on under-developed smallholder primary agricultural production, small-scale mining and other micro economic sector. Under such a situation, about 51% of the Tanzanians are poor and roughly one-third of these people live in abject poverty. Similarly, despite of the recent discovery of 2.17 trillion cubic feet of natural gas deposit, more than 50% of households have no access to basic requirements such as electricity, medical care etc. The human development index = 0.521 (low) i.e. life expectancy has decreased to about 50 years, illiteracy rate is about 68%, high rates of malnutrition and poor access to safe water both in urban and rural areas are other acute problems to the Tanzanians. Food insecurity is about 41% of households due to poor yields. The major causes for all these misfortunes are poor governance, policy failure, interference of political interest in professionalism, inadequate technology and corruption just to mention a few. Despite of the efforts as stipulated in section 7 of this paper, it is further projected that competition over resources use is expected to elevate being from within and outside the country. This will exacerbate the level of poverty among the poor and increase their vulnerability. To address the problem, the government needs to undertake serious and sustainable measures over the control and use of natural resources.

Green innovation and natural resource efficiency: The role of environmental regulations and resource endowment in Chinese cities

Research Article| November 01, 2014 A Detailed Assessment of Global Nickel Resource Trends and Endowments Gavin M. Mudd; Gavin M. Mudd † 1Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia †Corresponding author: e-mail, Gavin.Mudd@monash.edu Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Simon M. Jowitt Simon M. Jowitt 2School of Geosciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information Gavin M. Mudd † 1Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia Simon M. Jowitt 2School of Geosciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia †Corresponding author: e-mail, Gavin.Mudd@monash.edu Publisher: Society of Economic Geologists Received: 05 Aug 2013 Accepted: 01 Feb 2014 First Online: 09 Mar 2017 Online ISSN: 1554-0774 Print ISSN: 0361-0128 © 2014 Society of Economic Geologists. Economic Geology (2014) 109 (7): 1813–1841. https://doi.org/10.2113/econgeo.109.7.1813 Article history Received: 05 Aug 2013 Accepted: 01 Feb 2014 First Online: 09 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Gavin M. Mudd, Simon M. Jowitt; A Detailed Assessment of Global Nickel Resource Trends and Endowments. Economic Geology 2014;; 109 (7): 1813–1841. doi: https://doi.org/10.2113/econgeo.109.7.1813 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyEconomic Geology Search Advanced Search Abstract Nickel is a metal that reflects the technological advances of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, emerging as critically important for stainless steel and a variety of specialty metal alloys as well as currency, chemicals, and batteries. Although mineral resources are commonly considered to be limited or finite, global Ni production has grown steadily throughout the twentieth century and has been matched by substantial growth in estimated Ni reserves and resources. While there is growing concern about “peak oil,” there is very little research about “peak minerals.” In this paper, we present a detailed compilation and assessment of globally reported Ni resources by project and split into standard mineral deposit types for the year 2011. The minimum amount of Ni reported globally as mineral resources is 296.2 million metric tons (Mt) Ni, split over a total of 253 sulfide projects containing 118.0 Mt Ni and 224 laterite projects containing 178.1 Mt Ni, with a further 3.38 Mt Ni in China (excluding Jinchuan, which is included in our sulfide compilation)—i.e., a global total of some 299.6 Mt Ni. Our data compilation indicates that the majority of global Ni resources are hosted by laterite deposits (59.5%), especially Ni laterite deposits located around the tropics. In addition, our compiled data indicate that global Ni resources continue to increase, despite a coincident increase in Ni production over time, along with declining cut-off and ore grades, increasing awareness of environmental issues and other related aspects. Overall, there are abundant Ni resources already identified which can meet growing global demands for some decades to come—the primary factors which govern whether a given project is developed (or not) will be social, economic, and environmental in nature. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.

This impressive volume comprises contributions from twenty-three economic geographers examining the economic and spatial development of the Canadian economy. The stated task of the volume is 'to capture Canada's deeper and abiding economic characteristics, to assess the extent to which Canada is responsive to world-wide forces of change, and to identify problems inhibiting spatial and structural evolution of the economy' (p 6). The contributors explore four main themes, which provide coherence for the volume's five parts. Some themes are of more interest then others to students of international relations because they address the influence that such powerful global forces as advances in information technology and changes in the legal regulation of trade have on industrial organization and development in Canada. The papers provide a rich source of information about the domestic impact of globalization and privatization in a variety of industries and sectors. In some cases, they offer rather sobering evidence about the regional implications of deregulatory policies and about the loss of rational autonomy attending the internationalization of production and finance. Part One, 'The Open Economy,' discusses the impact that the openness of the Canadian economy has on patterns of trade and investment and on domestic, sectoral, and spacial development. There is much of interest here for students of international relations, particularly those interested in links between the local and global political economies. Glen Norcliffe analyses patterns of foreign trade in goods and services. He notes a 'technology gap' in Canadian trade, which he attributes to a lack of concern over the foreign acquisition of technological innovation and the consequent 'policy vacuum' (p 38) in Canadian government, and he makes a case for greater diversification of trading partners. Trevor Barnes examines the regional impact of openness, modifying Harold Innis's staples model of development with reference to Fordist and post-Fordist theories. In connecting trading patterns with production relations in the context of the economy of British Columbia, he convincingly illustrates 'a direct relationship between the type of trade in which Canada engages and its historic inability to become a fully industrialized nation' (p 50). Alan MacPherson focusses on shifts in Canadian direct investment abroad and foreign direct investment in Canada. Of note is the observation that the increasing popularity of 'investment by acquisition reflects an accelerating international trend toward industrial concentration, corporate integration, and oligopolist competition' and is accompanied by a 'progressive blurring of international political boundaries (p 81). Geoffrey Dobillas places the Canadian financial system in the global context of technological innovations in the instruments and methods of finance and the deregulation and integration of financial markets and concludes that the 'most obvious consequence for Canada of the internationalization of finance is a loss of domestic autonomy in choosing the direction for the finance and banking sector' (p 93). The next three parts develop the themes concerning the impact of regional variation in resource endowments and urbanization on the Canadian economy and the influence of technological change on Canadian development. 'The New Staple Economy' includes analyses of forest, mineral, energy, and agricultural resources. Roger Hayter addresses the technological challenge for the forest products industry, while Ian Wallace focusses on the restructuring of the mining and mineral-processing industries in response to global influences. …

While the paradox of plenty is given much weight on raging debates on resource endowment and growth path of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries. The study seeks to establish the effect of trade liberalisation on mining total factor productivity. The study employed panel data of selected seven countries from the SADC for the period 1990–2017. The countries in the sample include Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania, Namibia, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Zambia, and were chosen based on data availability. Hicks-Moorsteen productivity index was applied to generate the total factor productivity change. A panel auto regressive distributed lag model (PARDL) and pooled mean group (PMG) are the estimation techniques used. The inquiry is crucial to SADC because mining production is a source of foreign exchange that directly contributes to economic growth. However, with open economies of SADC study expects the easy flow and diffusion of technology to aid productivity in the mining sector (Griffith, Redding, & Van Reenen, 2014). Results indicate a positive and statistically significant long-run relationship between trade openness and total factor productivity change in the mining sector. The study recommends progressive trade openness in the mining sector, human capital development, research and development to augment technology transfer.

In general, the example of case study of the energy and mining company such as PT Bukit Asam (Tbk) in South Sumatera Province and PT INCO (Tbk) in South Sulawesi Province has positive impact to the regional economy in terms of the community development and economic productivity. Coordination between central and regional governments should set up grand strategy of increasing their in- tensive exploration program to identify the distribution, locality, quality and quantity of their energy and mineral resources in every region to develop its potentials and its mineral base downstream industries so instrumental to development in the near future, especially if they have resource endowments having optimal added value and positive terms of trade (TOT) or TOT greater than 1. In overall, it indicates that the energy and mineral resources (EMR) sector could be used as one of among the catalysts to achieve interregional convergence through “cross fertilization” toward the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita index. All in one purpose is to set up of creating job and income toward a welfare society.

The mineral resources industry is the basic industry of national economy in the world. The distribution of mineral resources industry is often not matched with the areas with rich mineral resources. This paper analyzes the distribution characteristics of industrial added value of mineral resources in the mining and dressing industry, smelting and processing industry in China. Energy and metal mineral resource industries are focused on. The results show that the distribution of each link of the mineral resources industry does not match the resource enrichment area. The scope of the mining and dressing industry has expanded, mainly in the north of China, and the smelting and processing industry continues to gather in the coastal provinces. Energy mining and dressing industry is mainly located in the north of China, and the processing industry is mainly distributed in the middle and east of China. The metal mineral resources industry mainly depends on resource endowment. Metal products industry is different, mainly distributed in the coastal provinces with relatively developed processing technology.

This paper analyzes the differing policy responses of Southeast Asian countries – such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines – to the US–China competition over critical mineral resources. It also examines how these countries prioritize various national interests, including economic development, resource security, and policy autonomy. The study finds that Malaysia primarily adopts a light hedging approach, balancing economic cooperation with both the United States and China to maintain the stability and development of the rare earth supply chain. Simultaneously, it leverages external resources to drive industrial modernization, demonstrating high flexibility and policy independence. In contrast, the Philippines, as an upstream supplier of nickel resources, employs a heavier hedging strategy. While deeply embedded in China's supply chain, it gradually attracts investments from the United States and its allies to reduce dependence on a single market. The differences in these strategies reflect how resource‐based Southeast Asian countries adjust their policies to balance economic development and security needs amid geopolitical rivalries based on their resource endowments and supply chain positions. Malaysia's approach emphasizes balance and economic benefits, while the Philippines' strategy highlights dual objectives of resource security and industrial upgrading. Indonesia has also maintained a light hedging strategy in response to US–China strategic competition, prioritizing the development of a critical mineral industry centered on nickel. This approach aims to promote foreign trade and industrial growth in a rational and strategic manner, thereby maximizing economic gains. Vietnam, by contrast, occupies an intermediate position among the three countries, adopting a moderate hedging strategy that leverages its advantage in rare earth and other mineral resources to strengthen cooperation with major powers. However, due to ongoing tensions between China and Vietnam, their cooperation on critical minerals remains uncertain and warrants further observation. With Trump's re‐election and the increasingly intense trade war between China and the United States, critical mineral resources are bound to become a core and crucial point of competition between the two countries in the coming period. Whether it is Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, or the Philippines, adopting relatively independent mineral policies not only helps safeguard their own economic security but also offers valuable lessons and inspiration for other resource‐rich small states in Southeast Asia.

China’s recent national and international regional development strategies emphasize both the deepening of the domestic market and the exploration of new markets and resource suppliers to support China’s industrialization. The cooperation with, and investment in, Africa has become an integrated part of China’s international regional development strategy. Investment in Africa is often the result of a decision process that requires balance among local complex political, economic, social, and geological conditions. Proper decision support analysis is the key for success or failure of complementary development. Based on location theories, the current study analyzes China’s mining investment in Africa and derives a set of indicators to form the basis for evaluating China’s investment strategies in the mining industries in Africa. A multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach, the VIKOR method, is applied to evaluate six African countries based on this set of indicators. Results suggest that while resource abundance and value are important factors for mining investment decisions, political stability and local legal system restrictions are weightier in the decision-making process. China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in mining industries in Africa is more inclined to countries with stable political environment, resource endowment and greater value advantage so that both parties can maximize the benefits from such investment.

Several African countries with rich endowments of mineral resources and petroleum have, paradoxically, achieved less by way of economic development than other African states without such wealth. In the African mineral economies there is less diversification of production, less investment, higher foreign debt, greater unemployment, and weaker overall productive growth. The causes of this poor economic performance involve both external factors, such as declining prices of primary commodity products, and internal factors, such as rent-seeking activities of politically powerful groups which give their support to governmental leaders in return for access to wealth. Inevitably, the mineral industries, which depend on timely investments and good management, decline. As a result the governments then resort to heavy foreign borrowing.

Declining U.S. production of petroleum and natural gas and greater reliance on foreign sources for various raw materials have revived the debate about mineral resource adequacy. Some view the earth's crust as still inadequately explored, or that price and technology will unlock the unused resources. The counter-argument is that we have been relying on unusually rich deposits. In the future, lower grade occurrences will bring rapidly rising production costs and energy requirements. Excluding petroleum, the shift of the United States to importing has been gradual. For some commodities, we are importing lower percentages of our needs today than previously. Given our resource endowment, we are to be faulted for our lack of anticipation of future needs. Current capacity difficulties do not necessarily suggest major shortages in the year 2000.

Manganese, as a strategic critical mineral resource, exhibits an uneven global distribution, with significant deposits concentrated in Sichuan Province across two distinct geological units: the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau tectonic unit in western Sichuan (plateau region) and the Sichuan Basin in eastern Sichuan (basin region). These two regions demonstrate substantial disparities in metallogenic settings, resource endowments, and development conditions; however, existing studies lack systematic comparative analyses and fail to adequately balance ecological preservation with economic development priorities in this context. To address this gap, we developed a tripartite analytical framework integrating exploitability, ecological, and geological conditions. This framework employs the entropy-weighting method and the InVEST model to quantitatively assess and compare the development potential of the western plateau and eastern basin regions.Building on this analysis, this research diagnoses the spatial mismatch between manganese resource distribution and development potential in Sichuan, formulates tailored strategies for its plateau and basin regions, and offers a generalizable triaxial assessment framework to guide sustainable resource development across diverse regions. The findings provide valuable insights into achieving synergy between resource exploitation and ecological protection, with important implications for the sustainable development of mineral resources in ecologically vulnerable regions worldwide.

SYNOPSIS As minerals are a non-renewable resource, sustainability must be considered in their development and utilization. Evaluation of the mineral resources carrying capacity is necessary for the sustainable development of mineral resource-based regions. Following the construction of a comprehensive evaluation index system from four aspects, namely resource endowment, socio-economic status, environmental pollution, and ecological restoration, a method combining particle swarm optimization (PSO) and the K-means algorithm (PSO-Kmeans) was used to evaluate the mineral resources carrying capacity of the Panxi region southwest Sichuan Province, China. The evaluation method is data-driven and does not consider the classification standards of different carrying capacity levels. At the same time, it avoids the problems of local optimization and sensitivity to initial points of the K-means algorithm, thereby providing more objective evaluation results and solving the problem of subjective division of each grade volume capacity in carrying capacity evaluation. The algorithm was verified through UCI data-sets and virtual samples. By superimposing a single index on the carrying capacity map for analysis, the rationality of the evaluation results was validated. Keywords: particle swarm optimization, K-means algorithm , mineral resources, carrying capacity, sustainability.

Economic and trade cooperation in the agricultural sector is an important driving force for economic development. When it comes to market demand, resources and product mix, China and Latin America possess respective advantages and enjoy strong complementarity. As economic and trade ties are getting rapidly stronger, agricultural cooperation between China and Latin America has also ushered in a new phase. First, trade. Although the total volume of agricultural trade between China and Latin America is increasing, the composition of such trade has been imbalanced: China now faces “low exports and high imports”, as well as a relatively high concentration in terms of trade partners and products. Therefore, it still needs to further carry out the diversification of trade. Second, investment. In recent years, China’s investments in Latin America mainly went to oil, gas and mineral resources. Its capital investment in the local agricultural sector has been relatively small and is usually influenced by Latin American national agrarian policies, labor issues and environmental protection policies. In view of the disparities in terms of national actual conditions, resource endowments and investment risks among Latin American countries, as well as the tremendous difference in terms of operational capacity among Chinese companies, China will promote a more targeted and incremental agricultural investment strategy, which should be carried out step by step.