Resources

Question 1

What is a resource?

Answer 1

Resources cover a wide scope of natural resources that provide value and use whether that is a mineral deposit, water or energy.

Question 2

What are stock resources?

Answer 2

They are non-renewable and finite.
They are created at rates considerably slower than their use.
They include fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, as well as uranium used in nuclear power stations.

Question 3

What are flow resources?

Answer 3

They are renewable and ongoing.
They are either immediately available, such as tidal advance/retreat and geothermal power, or created at comparable rates to their consumption such as timber for fuelwood.

Question 4

What is a measured resource?

Answer 4

Geological conditions including the confirmation of the grade of the deposit and has allowed for detailed mine planning.

Estimated with sufficient confidence to allow evaluation of the economic viability

Question 5

What is a indicated resource?

Answer 5

Geological conditions including the grade of the deposit can be reasonably assumed which has allowed for some mine planning.

Estimated with sufficient confidence to allow evaluation of the economic viability

Question 6

What is a inferred resource?

Answer 6

The economic viability cant be evaluated in a meaningful way.

Estimated using limited information so unlikely further exploration without increased resource scarcity/value.

Question 7

What is a possible resource?

Answer 7

A site where it is expected that the majority of the inferred resources could be upgraded to indicated mineral resources with continued exploration.

Estimated using limited information so unlikely further exploration without increased resource scarcity/value.

Question 8

What are proven reserves?

Answer 8

These are the economically viable part of measured resources.

Economic extraction of the measured resource is justified.

Question 9

What are probable reserves?

Answer 9

These are the economically viable part of measured/indicated resources.

Economic extraction of the measured/indicated resource is justified.

Question 10

How has mineral exploration changed over time?

Answer 10

Mineral resources have been mined for centuries but due to their uneven distribution, mining on a large scale is gradual and time consuming.

In recent decades, remote sensing by aerial and satellite data, such as infrared photography and radar scanning has sped up exploration considerably.

Question 11

Where are most mineral reserves located - regional geology

Answer 11

Many found in Cratons (vast areas of land covered by just rocks/minerals - imagine if Dartmoor was all a tor).

Also found in fold mountains along plate boundaries.

Some found in veins of igneous rocks and within marine sediments.

Question 12

Where are most mineral reserves - Wider scope location

Answer 12

Largely in the northern hemisphere due to larger landmass.

Question 13

3 main factors of mineral exploitation?

Answer 13

Mineral content of the rock - Low grade ores produce a high volume of waste rock but high grade ores are often in isolated locations such as northern Sweden.

Geological conditions - Its cheaper and easier to extract ores at shallow depths in open cast mines compared to deep depths extracting from narrow veins in compact rocks.

Accessibility in relation to markets - Low value minerals compared to their size are more costly to transport across the world, however the impact of this has been reduced with the development of bulk carrier ships.

Question 14

What is a resource frontier?

Answer 14

They are the boundaries between the currently mined and unmined minerals.

The resource frontiers are the furthest point mined in a technological and geographical sense.

Question 15

What is a resource peak?

Answer 15

The period of highest production.
Tends to be when around half of the resource has been used up, followed by a decline in resource production.

Question 16

How can managing resource peaks and future supply be difficult?

Answer 16

Difficulty in measuring size and nature of future resource demand.
In the future more resources may become economically exploitable as societies and technologies develop.

Question 17

How does the Hubberts Curve show mineral exploitation over time?

Answer 17

The Hubberts Curve is a normally distributed curve showing an increase in resource production, a resource peak and a decrease in resource production until the resource is fully depleted.
In some cases production can briefly rise after the resource peak if technology advances.

Question 18

Define Sustainability

Answer 18

Ensuring that resources are not extracted so quickly that they leave future generations without sufficient supplies, or in such a way that causes large-scale environmental damage.

Question 19

What are the elements of sustainability?

Answer 19

Social
Economic
Environmental
Political

Question 20

Which are more sustainable: Stock or Flow Resources?

Answer 20

Flow resources are often more sustainable, however, if demand for the resource is higher than the production, it can become unsustainable as people wont have enough to meet their needs.

Question 21

What is the EIA?

Answer 21

The Environmental Impact Assessment which aims to ensure that the environmental impacts are considered and are avoided/mitigated before the project goes ahead.

Question 22

Are EIAs effective?

Answer 22

EIAs can be very effective, however, are not often used in LICs and countries with few environmental laws and regulations.

Question 23

What are happening to production and consumption of water and energy?

Answer 23

There have been dramatic increases in production and consumption in the last century.

Coal and oil dominates energy production but that is shifting towards natural gas, nuclear power and renewables.

Question 24

What % of world energy consumption is dependant on fossil fuels?

Answer 24

85%, and is unlikely to change significantly in the near future.

Question 25

How is global trade of energy unequal?

Answer 25

Unlike flow resources, stock resources can be transported around the world.

These are largely exported out of the Middle East, Russia and Africa/South America.

Importing fossil fuels is becoming increasingly expensive so many economies are attempting to create their own domestic supply, however, the high demand is meaning more is still being exported each year into HICs and NEES such as China, the USA and Europe.

Question 26

Patterns of water scarcity

Answer 26

Around 1.2 billion of the worlds population live in areas of water scarcity and 1/3 don’t have access to clean water.

Water scarcity mainly located in Africa, Central Asia and some of USA.

Question 27

How does flows of energy impact geopolitics?

Answer 27

Fossil fuels and energy supply is essential in modern economies and so controlling the supply and being a large exporter helps establish a flow of money and power into a country.

Question 28

Examples of energy geopolitics?

Answer 28

In 2015, Iraq made between $1-$2 million from oil sales per day, vastly increasing their ability to wage military conflicts, whilst sustaining their economy.

In the UK since the 1980s coal mine closures, the UK has become a large importer of coal from the USA, Russia and Columbia. This can negatively impact the UKs geopolitical power and give increasing power to those in control of the supply of fossil fuels.

Question 29

How can the flow and supply of water impact geopolitics?

Answer 29

Water can impact geopolitics partially due to differences in water supply on a geographical scale with some areas in Africa for example, having large water surpluses very nearby to desert countries with a large water deficit.

Alternatively, rivers and lakes that flow between multiple countries are a common form of water impacting geopolitics as one country can over exploit the location and cause a degradation in size or quality of the water reserve.
Also in the example of transnational rivers, the country upstream has the power to take more or dam the river for HEP, reducing the flow to any country downstream.

Question 30

Examples of water geopolitics?

Answer 30

Large, unsustainable irrigation projects and overgrazing/deforestation has caused the Lake Chad that lies on the border between Chad and Cameroon to shrink from 25,000km2 to 2,000km2.

The river Nile flows through 10 different countries yet may shrink by 25-30% over the next 30 years. This will have a particular impact on nations downstream as there isn’t enough for everyone so agreements will inevitably leave some countries with a lack of water security.