Earth's Mineral Resources Research Articles

Thanatia: The Destiny of the Earth's Mineral Resources: A Thermodynamic Cradle‐to‐Cradle Assessment, by Antonio ValeroCapilla and Alicia ValeroDelgado. Hackensack, NJ, USA: World Scientific Publishing Company, 2014, 672 pp., ISBN 978‐981‐4273‐93‐0, hardcover, $158.00.

Journal of Industrial EcologyVolume 20, Issue 4 p. 941-943 BOOK REVIEW Thanatia: The Destiny of the Earth's Mineral Resources: A Thermodynamic Cradle-to-Cradle Assessment, by Antonio Valero Capilla and Alicia Valero Delgado. Hackensack, NJ, USA: World Scientific Publishing Company, 2014, 672 pp., ISBN 978-981-4273-93-0, hardcover, $158.00. Philip Nuss, Philip Nuss Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USASearch for more papers by this author Philip Nuss, Philip Nuss Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USASearch for more papers by this author First published: 26 April 2016 https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12426Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume20, Issue4August 2016Pages 941-943 Translations 《产业生态学报》中文摘要 (JIE Chinese Abstracts) Resúmenes en Español de la Revista de Ecología Industrial (JIE Spanish Abstracts) RelatedInformation

Cherish the Earth's Mineral Resources and Promote the Comprehensive Utilization of Iron Tailings

With the increasing amount of tailings, it has brought many serious problems like take up a lot of land, construction and maintenance tailings reservoirs must be consume a large amount of money. The stockpiled tailings is not only bring drawbacks, but also bring huge economic benefits for us. For example, recycling of useful components contained in the tailings, or use the tailings as a whole. This article introduction the tailings status, utilization and point out direction of future development of tailings utilization.

Liaoning Province Molybdenum, Rare Earth and Mineral Resources Exploration Situation and Demand Forecasting

The liaoning province is big province of mineral resources, although some energy and nonmetallic minerals resource reserves have among the top, but the rare earth provide strategic significance of mineral resources is the shortage, and molybdenum resources reserves to reduce year by year. This article through the objective analysis of molybdenum in liaoning province, the rare earth mineral resources exploration, status quo and the existing main problems of rare earth mineral resources, the province of molybdenum and long-term forecast the recent demand, in the province of mineral resources planning, provides the basis.

Physical geonomics: Combining the exergy and Hubbert peak analysis for predicting mineral resources depletion

This paper shows how thermodynamics and in particular the exergy analysis can help to assess the degradation degree of earth's mineral resources. The resources may be physically assessed as its exergy content as well as the exergy required for replacing them from a complete degraded state to the conditions in which they are currently presented in nature. In this paper, an analysis of the state of our mineral resources has been accomplished. For that purpose an exergy accounting of 51 minerals has been carried out throughout the 20th century. This has allowed estimating from geological data when the peak of production of the main mineral commodities could be reached. The obtained Hubbert's bell-shaped curves of the mineral and fossil fuels commodities can now be represented in an all-together exergy–time representation here named as the “exergy countdown”. This shows in a very schematic way the amount of exergy resources available in the planet and the possible exhaustion behaviour. Our results show that the peak of production of the most important minerals might be reached before the end of the 21st century. This confirms the Hubbert trend curves for minerals obtained by other authors using a different methodology. These figures may change, as new discoveries are made. However, assuming that these discoveries double, most of the peaks would only displace our concern around 30 years. This is due to our exponential demand growth. The exergy analysis of minerals could constitute a universal and transparent tool for the management of the earth's physical stock.

Greetings from Tyumen: Venue of the International Geoscience Conference and Exhibition

I cordially welcome all participants in the International Geoscience Conference and Exhibition, scheduled for 4–7 December 2007, to Tyumen. It is the first time that Rosnedra (The Russian Federal Subsoil Use Agency), the Eur-Asian Geophysical Society (EAGO), SEG, and AAPG have jointly organized an international conference and exhibit in Tyumen. Conducting such a comprehensive forum in Western Siberia will allow representatives from many countries to discuss a broad range of basic problems about geophysical prospecting for mineral deposits and application of modern technologies in geologic and geophysical studies of the Earth's mineral resources.

Global Equity and Sustainable Earth Resource Consumption Requires Super-Efficient Extraction-Conservation-Recycling and Ubiquitous, Inexpensive Energy

For more than 3.5 billion years, the Earth's biosphere maintained a dynamic equilibrium with solar energy and natural materials derived from the near-surface lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. Beginning about 10,000 years ago, however, settled agriculture allowed the division of labor, rise of civilizations, and utilization of terrestrial resources at rates greater than those of replenishment. Demographic estimates put our numbers at 9-10 billion by 2050. About 85 percent of humanity now resides in the Developing Nations, and this proportion is growing. Due to the global information network, this is the first world generation to become acutely aware of the high standard of living confined to the Industrialized Nations. The grossly inequitable distribution of wealth, due partly to Earth resource exploitation, is resented by many people of the Developing Nations; this situation is politically destabilizing and must be ameliorated. But can 10 billion people be afforded comfortable lives without destroying the planetary carrying capacity and habitability through exhaustion of the Earth's natural capital? Humans now control a third of the terrestrial net primary biological production, and our share is increasing. Adverse environmental impacts include increasing air and water pollution; accelerating loss of biodiversity, ecosystem services, topsoil, fisheries, and tropical rain forests; and global warming + sea-level rise. Prospects for the intricate web of life are ominous. Modern societies are sustained by the extraction of fossil energy, water, and other Earth materials far exceeding planetary renewal rates. Island communities provide sobering examples of the collapse of cultures that have overexploited and devastated their environments. Thus, humanity must reach a steady-state stewardship of the planet involving super-efficient, universal mineral resource recovery and conservation while preserving ecosystem integrity. Utilization of renewable resources at or below recharge rates and near-total recycling of nonrenewable Earth materials can only be accomplished employing widely available, inexpensive energy. Unfortunately, the Second Law of Thermodynamics dictates that a portion of the mineral resources and most of the spent energy are irretrievably lost. Scientific research-generated technological advances providing production and ubiquitous availability of low-environmentalimpact, cheap energy will be essential to preserving anything approaching steady-state resource utilization. Assuming technical, economic, and political success in achieving global equity and prosperity for 10 billion people (a very large order indeed!), the world ecosystem will be severely compromised through increased human consumption of the Earth's mineral resources. Biospheric equilibrium and ecosystem sustainability—the very carrying capacity of the planet—is already at risk, and this risk is increasing. Without doubt, the greatest long-term challenge facing humanity involves the preservation of a functioning, viable biosphere.

Inaugeral lecture - Meteorite impacts on Earth and on the Earth Sciences

Plate tectonics has become established during the last thirty years as a coherent explanation for the major features of the Earth today. The formation of new crust at mid-ocean ridges, the movement of relatively rigid lithospheric plates over the softer underlying asthenosphere, and the collision of plates throwing up the Earth's major mountain ranges, are familiar concepts to many people. However, recent discoveries in Earth sciences challenge us to a newer concept of the Earth's evolution. These discoveries indicate that large meteorite impacts have had enormous effects on the Earth, perhaps most dramatically illustrated 65 million years ago, when an impact at Chicxulub in the Caribbean may have been responsible for mass extinctions (including the dinosaurs) on a global scale. The evidence for these catastrophic events is surprisingly enigmastic in the geological record, and has been the subject of intense scientific debate and disagreement. Some of the major types of direct evidence for meteorite impacts include the craters formed by impact, and the effects of impact on rocks, including melting the formation of shatter cones, and a whole variety of small-scale features that are revealed under the microscope. Perhaps paradoxically, these microstructures are the most unambiguous evidence for meteorite impacts, because they formed under radically greater stresses, temperatures and strain rates than those of plate tectonic processes, and are therefore quite distinct from plate tectonic microstructures. These features of meteorite impacts on Earth are illustrated by examples from several known impact sites, including the Vredefort structure in South Africa and a possible impact structure at Highbury south of Mhangura in Zimbabwe. Large meteorite impacts on Earth have significantly augmented Earth's mineral resources since the formation of the Earth, by creating diamonds in the ultra-high pressure conditions of impact, by providing structures that trap petroleum, and possibly by creating base metal deposits. The likely environmental consequences of impacts include a searing heat wave followed by global cooling, causing episodes of mass extinction that may occur in cycles. There is some controversial evidence for the theory that the first life on Earth itself may have been transported here on meteorites from Mars. The possibility of a major meteorite impact on Earth in the near future emphasizes the dramatic nature of these recent discoveries, which are having deep impacts in the Earth sciences, possibly even constituting a scientific revolution. Journal of Applied Science in Southern Africa Vol.5, No.1 pp. 63-80

資源経済特集号 資源問題と日本のＯＤＡ

It seems strange and unusual but quite significant that various catastrophic phenomena have been observed occurring simultaneously toward the end of the 20th century. World population growth is very rapid and energy consumption by human being has increased remarkably. So is the mineral consumption. It is thought the time has come when we have to carefully watch and consider over the earth's supply of useful minerals in the danger of exhaustion.For the increase of earth's mineral resources from the global view, utilization of existing resources including low grade ore is necessary and for this purpose technical renovation is essential, as the reserves are determined by economic conditions containing mining and mineral processing cost and methods, in addition to geological conditions.Most of the mineral consumers are what is called advanced countries, who depend upon the supply from developing countries. Therefore, technical cooperation between advanced and developing countries is important for the smooth supply of mineral resources. There are various ways of assistance by the advanced countries to the developing countries. Official Development Assistance (ODA) could well contribute to the global problems including the developing of mineral resources.

Where are the Metals for the Future? The Metal Provinces: An Essay on Global Metallogeny

This interesting book is chiefly concerned with global metallogeny, rather than with metals for the future. The author draws on an extremely broad experience with mineral deposits throughout the world to attempt a synthesis of the many complex, interrelated metallogenic factors that control the notably irregular distribution of the earth's mineral resources. The approach is extremely broad and comprehensive; the attempt extremely ambitious. The result is only partially successful in elucidating the importance and the main elements of a global metallogenic approach to mineral resource problems.