RS: Resource Development

Question 1

Natural resources

Answer 1

Any naturally occurring parts of the environment that can be used by people to meet their needs.

Can be physical materials or flows of energy.

Question 2

What are the two types of resources?

Answer 2

Stock or flow

Question 3

Stock resources

Answer 3

Resources that can run out and can’t be replaced in the foreseeable future.

Question 4

Flow resources

Answer 4

Resources that can be replenished, including resources:

• That will never run out and don’t rely on human input to manage them.
• That may require careful management by humans to ensure they are replenished.

Question 5

Critical flow resources

Answer 5

Resources that may require careful management by humans to ensure they are replenished.

Question 6

Why do companies have to evaluate resources to see if they are economically viable?

Answer 6

Stock resources can be expensive to extract and transport, but they can also be extremely valuable.

Question 7

Resource

Answer 7

The entire supply of a material (including the parts that haven’t been found yet or aren’t economically viable to extract).

Question 8

Reserve

Answer 8

The amount of the resource that it is economically viable to extract.

Question 9

Possible resources

Answer 9

Resources that are thought to exist (eg. based on knowledge of local geology), but haven’t been sampled.

Question 10

Inferred resources

Answer 10

Resources that have been identified (eg. from limited samples of local geology) but haven’t been measured.

Question 11

Indicated reserve

Answer 11

The size of the reserve has been partly measured, and the measurements have been used to estimate the actual extent.

Question 12

Measured reserve

Answer 12

The size of the reserve has been measured and is known accurately.

Question 13

The extraction and sale of resources is mostly controlled by what?

Answer 13

TNCs

Question 14

Hypothetical resources

Answer 14

Undiscovered materials that are reasonably expected to exist in known mining regions under known geological conditions.

Question 15

Speculative resources

Answer 15

Undiscovered materials that may occur in known types of deposits in geological settings where no previous discoveries have yet been made.

Question 16

What are the two types of possible resources?

Answer 16

Hypothetical resources and speculative resources.

Question 17

What are stock resources also known as?

Answer 17

Non-renewable resources

Question 18

What are flow resources also known as?

Answer 18

Renewable resources.

Question 19

State and define the two types of renewable/flow resources:

Answer 19

Critical = resources that require careful management by humans to ensure they are replenished.

Non-critical = ‘everlasting’ resources such as tides, waves, running water, wind and solar power.

Question 20

Non-renewable energy resources

Answer 20

Finite resources whose rate of formation is so slow that they cannot be replenished during a human lifespan.

Question 21

Renewable energy resources.

Answer 21

Resources that yield a continuous flow that can be consumed within any given period of time without endangering future consumption.

Question 22

Resource security

Answer 22

The ability of a country to safeguard a reliable and sustainable flow of resources to maintain living standards of its population, while ensuring ongoing economic and social development.

Question 23

What are the stages of resource development?

Answer 23

• Exploration
• Exploitation
• Depletion
• Development
• Exhaustion

Question 24

Exploration

Answer 24

Locating a potential new resource and evaluating whether it is viable to extract.

Question 25

Exploitation

Answer 25

Extracting the resource, preparing it for use and transporting it to where it will be used.

Question 26

Depletion

Answer 26

Resource begins to run out.

Question 27

Development

Answer 27

Yield decreases and new methods of extraction may be developed to prolong the life of the resource.

Question 28

Exhaustion

Answer 28

Resource becomes so limited that it is not physcially possible or economically viable.

Question 29

Resource frontier

Answer 29

A place with abundant natural resources that are being exploited for the first time

Question 30

Why do resource frontiers develop?

Answer 30

More accessible resources are depleted and increasing demand it economically viable to exploit new areas.

Question 31

Resource peak

Answer 31

Period of highest production - point at which maximum amount of resource is being extracted each day.

Often when resource is cheaper.

Question 32

Describe the Hubbert Curve/resource peak curve:

Answer 32

• Production increases as investment increases - easily accessed parts of reserve are extracted
• Resource peak - roughly when half the resource has been used
• Depletion of resource
• Exhaustion

Question 33

How can new technology affect the Hubbert Curve?

Answer 33

• Second peak
• Slow down depletion

Allows hard-to-reach reserves to be exploited.

Question 34

How can the use of stock resources be made sustainable?

Answer 34

• Use less of resource
• Increasing reuse/recycling - minimises new materials needed
• Finding new reserves/ways of extracting resources - eg. tech developments
• Finding alternatives to each resource

Question 35

What are more sustainable - flow resources or stock resources?

Why?

Answer 35

Flow - can be replenished.

Question 36

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Answer 36

Undertaken before a new development is started/

Assesses potential environmental effects of development.

Question 37

What are the 7 steps in an Environmental Impact Assessment?

Answer 37

1. Outline development
2. Describe existing environment
3. Assess likely impacts - using Leopold Matrix
4. Propose modifications to reduce impacts
5. Publish environmnetal statement
6. Decision made - under what conditions can the plan go ahead?
7. Monitoring