Mineral resources after the completion of their exploration and production, as well as biological resources, and even water and air, become raw materials for various sectors of the economy. The raw materials used in production are already converted into economic resources society (other economic resources are capital, labor resources and entrepreneurship opportunities). Ultimately, the used natural resources, after a certain technological processing, appear in the form of tools and means of labor and various material goods.
Although the Earth has a large and varied natural resources, the reserves of different types of them are not the same and they are located unevenly. Therefore, individual countries and regions have different resource availability. Volume ratio natural resources and the volumes of their use, that is, resource availability, is expressed either by the number of years for which there should be enough resources of a given type, or by the reserves of a certain resource per capita at the current level of consumption.
The provision of the whole world with certain types of resources, according to scientists, ranges from several to hundreds of years. At the same time, the resource availability of some countries (or regions) may be low, while others may be quite high.
Indicators of resource availability are approximate, since, on the one hand, there may be age, and on the other, new deposits, sources of income, etc. may be discovered. mineral. Due to insufficient knowledge, it is difficult to assess the land, water, and forest resources of these regions, which is explained by the lack of funds from underdeveloped countries for a thorough study of their natural resource potential.
But even in the case when there are few natural resources in a particular country, this does not mean that the country is doomed to poverty, because the economic resources of each country are measured not only by the amount of available oil, gas or even fertile soils. Human resources, the ability to work of the population, the level of their training and skill, the availability of scientific and technical ideas and modern technologies, management experience and, finally, the presence of capital in the country are of great importance. As an example, we can name first of all Japan, which has achieved brilliant economic results with an extremely limited natural resource base.
V economic activity the economical use of resources is important, which gives a great economic effect. For example, in order to more efficiently use renewable resources, it is necessary:
a) rationally extract and process natural resources;
b) to involve in advance new unexploited resources and thereby weaken the use of depleted ones;
v) artificially renew resources, which can be done more intensively than nature does;
G) find or produce artificial substitutes.
Mineral resources are the primary source, the initial basis of human civilization at practically all stages of its development. However, only today mankind is finally getting rid of the idealistic ideas that they are practically eternal. Mineral resources are limited, virtually irreplaceable, and if their exponentially growing consumption continues, they will be depleted in the foreseeable future. At the same time, it is important to take into account the following circumstance: in essence, humanity is not threatened by a close depletion of physically available mineral resources in the earth's interior - the technically accessible and economically efficient is very limited (according to the conditions of occurrence and quality - approx .. mean a serious test for the economies of many countries.
That is why questions like: "Are the reserves of mineral resources large or small?", "What is the supply of them to mankind?" are not entirely correct. Of real interest is only that fraction of a natural substance that can be used technically and economically. What of the fact that in the center of the Earth there is a metallic core of the earth, consisting mainly of iron and nickel? There are good reasons to assert that the Earth's core will never become a source of replenishment of the balance stocks of these elements for the world economy.
Deposits of minerals. Photo: Tim Parkinson
The distribution of mineral resources over the territory of our planet is subject to geological laws.
There are more than 600 explored oil and gas basins in the world, 450 are being developed. The largest oil reserves are located in Russia ( Western Siberia, Volga region), Azerbaijan ( Absheron peninsula), in the USA (states of Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, California, Alaska), in the countries of the Persian Gulf ( Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, UAE, Oman), in the countries North Africa(Algeria, Libya, Tunisia), Canada (Edmonton), Mexico, Venezuela, Nigeria, Indonesia and Brunei. In Europe, the United Kingdom and Norway stand out, which are producing from the water area of the North Sea, as well as Romania, Kazakhstan (the Caspian Sea coast), and Turkmenistan.
The largest reserves of natural gas are possessed by Russia (Western Siberia, the North Caucasus), Uzbekistan, the USA (the shelf of the Gulf of Mexico, the states of Texas, Kansas, Alaska), Canada, Venezuela, Algeria, Iran, Brunei, Romania, Great Britain, Norway, the Netherlands and Mexico.
Large stocks coal Russia (Kuzbass, Pechora and Tunguska basins), Ukraine (Donbass), USA (Appalachian and Illinois basins), China, Austria, South Africa, Great Britain, Germany (Ruhr basin), France, Spain, Poland (Upper Silesian basin), Slovakia, Korea, India, Kazakhstan (Karaganda field).
The following countries are characterized by reserves of brown coal: Russia (Moscow region, Kansko-Achinsky, Lensky basins), Germany (Halle-Leipzig, Nizhnelauzitsky, Cologne), USA, Spain, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Ukraine (Dnipropetrovsk basin).
Thus, we can conclude that the developing countries are distinguished by the availability of oil and gas, and the developed countries are distinguished by the coal reserves.
Ore minerals form several belts. The "iron" belt covers Brazil, Mauritania, Mali, Liberia, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and other countries of Western and Equatorial Africa as well as India. In addition to this belt, Russia (Ural, Eastern Siberia), Ukraine (Kryvyi Rih), Kazakhstan, Canada (Labrador), USA (Mesabi), Australia, South Africa, China, Sweden, France (Lorraine).
The "Copper Belt" stretched across the Cordillera and the Andes, covering Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and Peru. In Eurasia, the "copper" belt stretches from the shores of the Barents to Mediterranean Sea and further to the Himalayas, capturing Norway, Finland, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, India. On the African continent, the "copper" belt is located from Lake Tanganyika to the Orange River, covering the south of Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. Large reserves of copper ores are also found in Australia.
The "tin" belt stretches along the Pacific coast of Eurasia and Australia and covers Russia, Korea, China, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Large deposits tin ores are also found in Bolivia and Nigeria.
Aluminum ores prevail in Australia, France, Russia, Hungary, China, Croatia, Bosnia, Brazil, Jamaica, Suriname and Guyana.
Non-metallic minerals are also widespread: various salts (Congo, Russia, Ukraine, USA, Canada), apatites and phosphorites mined in the USA (Florida), Russia (in the north-west of the country), Vietnam, South Africa, in the countries of North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, West Sahara, Morocco, Togo, Egypt and Jordan). Sulfur reserves were found in Mexico, Russia, Tajikistan.
World natural resources, mineral resources
Targets and goals
give the concept of "resource availability"; to form an idea of the basic patterns of the distribution of the world's mineral resources and the provision of countries and regions with minerals; to form the ability to determine the degree of resource availability of countries and regions of the world using tables and maps; develop skills and abilities to work with cards and text.
Equipment: map "Natural resources of the world", tables, atlases.
Lesson type: combined.
During the classes
I. Learning new material
Teacher: Today we will get acquainted with the geography of mineral resources. We will learn how to determine the level of resource availability of countries and regions of the world. You will carry out practical work to determine the resource availability of countries and regions.
We all know that natural resources are divided into exhaustible and inexhaustible.
Inexhaustible resources are the energy of the wind, the sun, ebb and flow, geothermal energy. These types of resources will not disappear on Earth, despite the volume of their use. No matter how many solar power plants we build, the sun will not shine less brightly.
Another group of resources is exhaustible. They can be depleted with large amounts of their use. Exhaustible resources are divided into renewable and non-renewable. Non-renewable resources include mineral resources or minerals. Renewable resources can be recovered. Renewable resources include land, forest, water, biological, and recreational resources.
Question: Remember how you can restore these resources? (Land - through reclamation and reclamation, biological through the creation of specially protected areas - reserves, wildlife reserves, national parks.)
Natural resource stocks are not the same and are unevenly distributed. In different countries and regions, the degree of resource availability is not the same.
What is resource availability and how can it be determined? (Resource availability is the ratio between the amount of natural resources and the amount of their use. It can be expressed by the number of years for which a given resource should be enough, or by its reserves per capita.)
The resource availability indicator (P) is influenced not only by the amount of resource reserves, but also by the amount of their production. Mineral resources are classified as non-renewable. The extraction of mineral resources is constantly growing, and this is the reason that the supply of mineral resources in the world is sharply decreasing.
II. Practical work
Task number 1. Determine the resource supply of the countries with fuel resources (coal), using the data in the table:
|
Coal reserves (in billion tons) |
Production (in million tons) | ||
|
Australia | |||
|
United Kingdom | |||
|
Kazakhstan |
Draw conclusions about the resource supply of different countries with coal.
Conclusion: Countries are unevenly provided with coal. The resource availability of coal is generally significant, since there will be enough coal in the countries for hundreds of years. Most of the countries with coal reserves are developed countries. The United States has the largest coal reserves, but with large production volumes, the resource availability of this country is not the highest.
Task number 2. Determine the resource availability of countries with oil using the data of the tables of the textbook (block number 7) and table 3 of the appendix. Make a conclusion about the resource supply of countries with oil.
|
Oil reserves (in billion tons) |
Production (in million tons) |
Resource availability (for how many years the resource will last) |
|
|
Saudi Arabia | |||
|
Venezuela | |||
Conclusion: The resource supply of countries with oil is lower than with coal. Countries have unequal oil resource availability. Among the oil-rich countries, the developing countries stand out (OPEC, the countries of the Persian Gulf). The highest oil availability is in Iraq, the UAE, and Kuwait. Developed countries are characterized by large volumes of production, but gradually depleting oil reserves, therefore, their degree of resource availability is low.
Task number 3. Determine the resource supply of the countries with gas, using the data of the table in Appendix 4 and the data of block number 7.
|
Gas reserves (in trillion m3) |
Gas production (in bcm) |
Resource availability (for how many years the resource will last) |
|
|
Netherlands | |||
|
Saudi Arabia | |||
|
Venezuela | |||
|
Norway |
Conclusion: The overall gas resource availability in the world is low. Countries have unequal gas resource availability. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have the highest gas supply. Of the countries with significant gas reserves, the United States has the least security with this resource. Russia has the largest gas reserves, but also very large production volumes, so there will be enough gas in Russia for 87 years. The largest resource supply with gas in developing countries.
Task number 4. Determine the resource availability of the world and its regions with fuel resources, using the data of table number 4 and table number 1 (block 2).
|
Fuel reserves |
Extraction of fuel |
Resource availability (for how many years the resource will last) |
|
|
Oil (world at large) |
140 billion tons |
3450 million tons | |
|
Coal (world at large) |
1100 billion tons |
4625 million tons | |
|
Natural gas (world at large) |
150 trillion m3 |
220 billion m3 | |
|
Natural gas ( Overseas Europe) |
5.6 trillion m3 |
270 billion tons | |
|
Natural gas ( Overseas asia) |
$ 59.0 trillion m3 |
330 billion tons | |
|
Oil (Overseas Europe) |
2.5 billion tons | ||
|
Oil (Overseas Asia) |
98.0 billion tons |
1370 million tons | |
|
Oil (LPG) |
9.0 billion tons |
Make a conclusion about the resource supply of the world and regions with fuel resources.
Conclusion: The availability of fuel resources in the world is not the same. The highest supply of gas and coal. Oil resource availability is low (40 years). Overseas Asia has a higher fuel supply than Overseas Europe. In the 21st century, mankind will use more coal and gas, since the world as a whole is better supplied with these fuels than oil.
Teacher: Remember what is the pattern of distribution of minerals? (Nonmetallic minerals occur in sedimentary covers of platforms, and ore minerals - in platform foundations and in folded areas.)
Consider the resource supply of countries and regions with ores. The most used ores are iron, copper, aluminum, and tin.
Task number 5. Using the data of block 8, table 5 (the teacher can give the data in the table), draw a conclusion about the resource availability of iron ore in the countries. Which countries have the largest reserves iron ore and the greatest resource availability?
|
Reserves, billion tons |
Production, million tons (for 2000) |
Resource availability (for how many years the resource will last) |
|
|
Brazil | |||
|
Australia | |||
|
Kazakhstan |
Conclusion: All countries with large reserves of iron ore are giant countries in terms of area. The first three places in terms of iron ore reserves are occupied by Russia, Ukraine, Brazil. China, Brazil and Australia are leading in the extraction of iron ore. In terms of resource availability, the leaders are Russia, Kazakhstan, Canada, Ukraine, and the United States. Resource availability depends not only on ore reserves, but also on the volume of its production. India and Canada have practically the same reserves of iron ore, but in India ore mining is carried out 2 times more intensively than in Canada, therefore, India's resource availability with these minerals is 2 times lower than Canada.
Task number 6. Study the map "Mineral resources" and identify the most endowed with various resources of the belt and countries of the world.
Teacher: Bauxite is a mineral that is the main aluminum raw material, consisting of aluminum hydroxides. The main deposits of bauxite are found in Europe (Mediterranean province), Africa (Guinean), Latin America (Caribbean) and Australia. The largest bauxite reserves are in Guinea, Australia, Brazil, Jamaica, India, China, Guyana, Suriname.
Uranium is widespread in earth crust... Its deposits are located in 44 countries of the world. Australia ranks first in terms of uranium reserves. The second place is occupied by Kazakhstan. Third place - Canada. These countries account for 45% of the world's uranium reserves.
Tin ores occur in belts: in East and Southeast Asia and in South America (Bolivia).
Copper ores are found in Central Africa (Zambia, Zaire) and in the Andean countries (Chile, Peru).
Task number 7. Land resources. Read the text of the textbook (pp. 29, 32). Answer the questions:
1. What is the structure of the world land fund? (Fig. 6) (Most of the land fund is occupied by forests and shrubs - about 32%, 28% are occupied by unproductive and unproductive lands, and about 26% are occupied by meadows and pastures, 11% are arable lands, 3% are settlements.)
2. What lands are of the greatest value? (Arable land - arable land)
3. In which natural areas is most of the cultivated land concentrated? (Spoon, steppe and forest-steppe zones.)
4. What is the share of arable land in the land fund of the planet? (About 11%.)
5. What processes influence the structure of the planet's land fund? (Two processes: expansion of arable land and land depletion.)
6. What is land depletion? (The earth is being eaten up by erosion, salinization, waterlogging, desertification.)
7. Why is the availability of land resources constantly decreasing? (As a result of the processes of desertification, degradation, erosion, development - residential, industrial, transport.)
8. Using fig. 7, block 3, determine the world average level of arable land per capita. (0.23 ha per capita.)
9. Find out which countries have the highest and the lowest provision of arable land? (Countries with a large area, but a small population are the most provided with arable land: Australia, Canada, Russia, Argentina. The least abundant arable land is found in countries with a small area, a large population, countries with a desert climate, where arable land is limited to irrigated areas.)
III. Questions to reinforce
1. Why cannot the resource availability be judged only by the size of reserves?
2. Which countries have the highest supply of coal?
3. Which countries are the most abundant in oil?
4. Name the countries with the highest gas supply.
5. Where on earth are the ore belts located?
6. What ores are rich in Southeast Asia?
7. Where are the "copper belts"?
8. What are the changes taking place in the structure of the land fund?
9. What fuel is the most abundant in the world? (Coal, gas.)
10. What does the expression mean: “searches for minerals go in two directions -“ in depth ”and“ in breadth ”?
2. Apply to outline map the main deposits of coal, oil, gas, iron, copper, tin ores.
3. Prepare a message on one of the topics:
1. Land water resources: fresh water problems.
2. Biological resources of the planet.
3. Resources of the World Ocean.
4. Recreational resources.
5. Climatic and space resources.
Of course, the indicator of pecypsensitivity is primarily influenced by the wealth or poverty of the territory with natural resources. But since resource availability also depends on the scale of their extraction (consumption), this concept is not natural, but socio-economic.
Example... The world's general geological reserves of mineral fuel are estimated at 5.5 trillion tons of standard fuel. This means that at the current level of production, they may be enough for about 350400 years! However, if we take into account the reserves available for extraction (including taking into account their placement), as well as the constant growth of consumption, such provision will decrease many times.
It is clear that in the long term, the level of security depends on the class of natural resources to which one or another type of them belongs to exhaustible (non-renewable and renewable) or to inexhaustible resources. (creative task 1.)
2. Mineral resources: are they sufficient?
Even in antiquity, people learned to use some of these resources, which found its expression in the names of historical periods in the development of human civilization, for example, the Stone Age. More than 200 different types of mineral resources are used today. According to the figurative expression of Academician A.E. Fersman (1883 1945), now the entire periodic system of Mendeleev is folded at the feet of mankind. ...
