Resource Security - Mineral Ores Flashcards
What is the global pattern of mineral ore trade?
Global distribution of mineral deposits and patterns of production and consumption are very uneven.
E.g. The USA has around 5% of world’s population, but consumes 25% of world’s mineral ore.
What are some factors that affect production?
- Size and accessibility of ore reserves.
- Can a country afford to extract deposits?
- Has reserves already been depleted?
What are some factors that affect consumption?
- Wealth of a country.
- Use of services, goods, appliances, will have minerals in it.
- Is country industrialised?
What issues arise from the geopolitics of minerals?
- The inter-dependency existing in the international trade of raw materials.
- Potential for trade wars resulting from fluctuating prices of different minerals.
- Potential future conflict concerning access to ‘common’ resources.
- Environmental and socio-economic issues arising from mine developments.
- Role and dominance of large TN mining C.
- Role of China in the world’s mining and metals industry.
What has growth and exploration in Africa, Latin America, and Asia been spurred by?
- Technological advances giving increasing viability to mining previously inaccessible deposits in remote, less developed regions.
- Development of large ocean-going vessels able to carry large quantities of bulk mineral commodities such as iron ore and bauxite.
Why is trade in mineral ores largely one directional?
- Developing –> developed countries.
- Developed countries have depleted their reserves so create TNCs in developing countries to extract theirs.
What is meant by the ‘Resource Curse’?
Countries with an abundance of non-renewable resources tend to have a lower economic growth and development than resource poor countries. If resources are poorly managed, it can lead to economic instability, social conflict, and lasting environmental damage.
What are the roles of TNCs in mineral ore distribution?
- Developing infrastructure such as access roads.
- Negotiating exploration rights, and leasing land from national governments.
- Establishing subsidiaries, or entering into joint ventures with mining companies from host nation.
- TNCs are accused of neglecting EIAs which have negative social and environmental impacts on areas.
What are Porphyry deposits?
- Found in igneous rocks formed at destructive plate margins.
- Continental plate melts, forms magma that contains copper. Forced up through cracks in rock.
- As magma rises, it cools. Copper compounds crystallise as porphyry rocks.
What are Sediment (Strata-Bound) Deposits?
- Water in Earth’s crust heated, dissolving compounds of metals, including copper.
- Mineral-rich water flows through gaps in sedimentary rocks, e.g. shale.
- Chemical changes cause copper ore minerals to solidify in cracks and gaps in the rock.
What is deep mining?
- Wide variety of added requirements e.g. ventilation, ground support. Expensive.
- Shafts and tunnels dug underground to extract ore.
- Generally carried out when copper deposits are too far below surface for open pit mining.
- Can reach 50 degrees c underground. Toxic gases.
- 10x more expensive than open pit mining.
What is open pit mining?
- Overburden blasted away.
- Least expensive.
- First choice when deposit is closer to surface.
- Surface material removed before ore is extracted layer by layer, leaving a huge hole.
- Easy to mechanise, doesn’t require much infrastructure.
What are some properties of copper?
- Ductile
- Strong and malleable
- Good conductor of electricity
- Biostatic (doesn’t sustain bacterial growth)
- Can be combined with other metals to make alloys
What are some end uses of copper?
- Electricity supply, industry, electronic products.
- Used in power stations.
- Antibacterial qualities = slow down growth of E. Coli, MRSA etc.
- Important for food preparation, coinage, hospitals, plumbing.
- Combined with zinc to make brass, with tin to make bronze. Harder, stronger, tougher than pure copper and are used in all industrial applications.
- Can be used in pigments and in agriculture, where it’s used in pesticides and fungicides.
Wall Street Journal said?
- Wind and solar need 2x more copper than fossil fuels.
- 35 million metric tonnes by 2030.
- $8000/tonne, ned $15,000/metric tonne
- Takes around 10 years from permit application to production.
- Changing Tesla battery design to use 25% less copper.
