Abstract
Intensified mineral consumption and reserve depletion means that it is becoming increasingly important for policymakers to account for and manage national mineral capital. Exergy replacement costs (ERC), an indicator based on the second law of thermodynamics, provides a physical value of mineral loss. When only a unit mass analysis is used, the role of scarcer minerals, such as gold, is obscured. ERC can identify those minerals which are most critical and more difficult to re-concentrate. This paper compares the mineral depletion of that of Colombia and Spain for 2011, both in mass and ERC terms. The Colombian mineral balance for that year is predominately based on fossil fuel extraction and exports, whilst Spain produced industrial minerals but relied heavily upon metals and fossil fuel imports. Using exergy replacement costs, an economic analysis was carried out to determine the impact of mineral extraction, in monetary terms, should the cost of re-concentrating such minerals be taken into account. In 2011, the GDP derived from the extractive sectors of either country did not compensate the mineral resource loss, meaning that mineral patrimony is not being properly evaluated.
Highlights
IntroductionMineral resource depletion and mineral capital management are critical issues that need to be addressed objectively and efficiently on an international scale across disciplines and professions
Mineral resource depletion and mineral capital management are critical issues that need to be addressed objectively and efficiently on an international scale across disciplines and professions.According to Krausmann et al [1] the global total of material extraction has multiplied eightfold since the beginning of the 20th century
If fossil fuel data are removed from the Colombian mineral balance, 0.21% of the total comes from imports, when expressed in tonnes, and 17.58 % when presented as exergy replacement costs
Summary
Mineral resource depletion and mineral capital management are critical issues that need to be addressed objectively and efficiently on an international scale across disciplines and professions. ERC depend on the mineral’s composition, a deposit’s average ore grade and the energy intensity of the mining and beneficiation process Scarcer minerals, such as gold or mercury, carry more weight in this non-conventional accounting process, than the common minerals of, say, limestone or phosphate rock. This is useful because mass, the predominate measure of resource extraction, and used in the DMC, does not take quality into consideration and is not robust enough to properly assess the loss of mineral capital. These themes are currently under discussion and of foremost importance in various States [5,6,7]
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