Mineral resources is a collection of all minerals found in the bowels of the planet, available and suitable for industrial use. This category includes not only land minerals, but also those found at the bottom of the oceans.
Mineral resources are a broad concept that has several aspects. From the point of view of geology, this is a set of deposits in which chemical elements and minerals consisting of them are concentrated in sharply increased doses compared to their average (clarke) content in the earth's crust, which ensures the feasibility of their industrial development. If we consider the economic aspect, mineral resources are raw material base for the development of the complex, construction, metallurgy, chemical industry), as well as a possible object of international cooperation.
In other words, as you drain your resource, your income drops. This is shown in this figure. You can see that the percentage of "clean" energy, that is, the energy that you earn, decreases when you run out of "good" resources. Now the problem of diminishing returns also exists for minerals that are not recovered for energy production. We still need to spend energy on extracting minerals, and as you deplete, you must use more and more energy. This makes the resource more expensive.
And there is no doubt that this process continues. We need a tremendous amount of energy to extract the amount of mineral products that an industrial society needs. Just let me show you an example. This is a typical modern mine measure - the amount of energy it uses is, in turn, enormous.
Scientists have developed a classification of mineral resources by areas of use. From this point of view, the following groups are distinguished:
1. First of all, it is oil and natural gas, as well as coal, oil shale. became industrial minerals only at the end of the 20th century. Now they also belong to this category. Historically, peat also belongs to this group, although at present it has no industrial value. The listed minerals are of sedimentary origin. As a rule, they are confined to the covers of ancient platforms, their marginal and internal troughs.
It can be estimated that it accounts for about 10% of the total primary energy produced in the world. Poverty is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon. This is a gradual evolution, with prey becoming more and more expensive; this means both in terms of the required energy and in terms of money. As your profit decreases slowly, there are fewer resources for further development of resources.
Of course, there are many more factors that affect the curve: prices, political interventions, technology, etc. but the heart of the model, declining clean energy, remains a powerful factor in shaping production curves, which in turn affect the economy and lead to global recession. So, since this is the model, where are we in real terms? Let me show you some general data.
First of all, this is iron, as well as vanadium, manganese and chromium;
Non-ferrous and alloying metals. These are alunites, nepheline-apatites, etc.), copper ores, nickel, lead-zinc, tungsten, molybdenum, etc .;
- (gold, silver, platinum).
Ores either accompany the foundations and shields of ancient platforms, or are confined to folded zones, where they often form metallogenic belts, which owe their origin to deep tectonic faults.
But, if there should be a peak, we have not arrived yet. However, we have clear evidence that the global mining industry is under great stress. We derive it mainly from the price trend. So here is some data on some of the selected mineral commodities, metals that are important to the industry.
And here is some data on oil. And you see that even if we can manage a slightly growing production of crude oil, we can only do it for more high prices... This is the effect of increasing investment in complex resource extraction - ultimately energy costs - money.
3. Precious and semiprecious minerals (diamond, corundum and its varieties, spinel, emerald, jasper, quartz varieties and many others).
4. Mining and chemical mineral resources. This group includes rock, potassium and magnesian salts, phosphorites and apatites, sulfur and its compounds, barite, fluorite, boric ores and other minerals that are raw materials for chemical industry.
Of course, food is not a mineral resource, although in fact it is partly because modern agriculture "extracts" fertile soil. But most importantly, modern agricultural production needs energy from oil, as well as fertilizers and other elements that are produced using fossil fuels. So, if food prices rise, it is due to the depletion of oil and the general rise in prices for all minerals, as you can see below.
What you see here is a big problem because we all know that the demand for food is highly inelastic - in other words, we need to eat or we are dying. Several recent episodes in the world, such as wars and revolutions in North Africa and in the Middle East have been linked to this rise in food prices.
5. Industrial raw materials of non-metallic origin (quartz, graphite, asbestos, mica, talc, etc.).
6. Building materials (marble, clay, slate slates, granite, gabbro-diabase, limestone, glass and cement raw materials, etc.).
7. Hydromineral resources (groundwater, both fresh and mineralized, including thermal and used in balneology).
All this is already quite alarming, but the real disaster is yet another. We are creating a climate catastrophe. And, unfortunately, it seems that we are getting closer and closer to the beginning of an irreversible recession. Let me point out one thing about this figure. You see, the Club of Rome has often been accused of presenting only problems, not solutions. But look at the picture above: look at what the problem is, but also look at what the solution is. Think about it: why are we going to crash? Because we have grown too much.
There is no way to avoid this: if we grow above the sustainability limit, then we will find ourselves in the so-called "overcoming" - we go beyond the acceptable ecological footprint. There is nothing that can be done if we do not go back below the limit, but in overcoming we consume resources that cannot be recreated except for a very long time. So you are doomed to decline, in fact, to rapid decline, you can call it a crash, if you like, it's the same thing.
Deposits of nonmetallic minerals are found both on platforms and in folded zones.
This classification is rather arbitrary, since often different industries can use the same raw materials. For example, apatite or limestone can be used both in metallurgy and in the chemical industry, and limestone can also be used in construction.
So, if the problem has been surpassed, see right away what it can be and what it cannot be a solution. If you generate more energy from fossil fuels, then that additional energy will be used by someone else for other purposes, and everything remains as it is, including the production of pollution. As long as we continue to say that the solution to all problems of the economy is growth, we can do nothing so as not to go beyond this. And at some point we will have to pay for the consequences. Growth is a problem; the solution to the problem is to stop growth.
Mineral resources began to be used by man at the dawn of civilization, which was reflected in the names of some eras (for example, stone or At present, as Academician A.E. Fersman put it, the entire Mendeleev system is at the feet of humanity. More than 200 varieties of minerals are involved in modern industry Almost all of them belong to the category of non-renewable ones, therefore one of the most important areas of modern ecology is the development of a set of measures to prevent the resource crisis.
The only one possible. So the first thing we need to look at if we want to mitigate the problem is slowdown. Of course, this is not easy to do, because our entire political dialectic today is based on growth. But in the end, if we don't find a way to stop growth by our actions, then the system itself will cause us to slow down and then fall. It will be the same, only a little faster and more painful.
The last question, but certainly not the most important one. In the model, the decline in industrial society is the result of not only depletion but also pollution. And I don't need to tell you that climate change has an additional negative aspect to resource depletion; this is what we call the "point of no return." With exhaustion, we can't do worse than release something. With climate change, we can initiate a series of feedback loops that completely spiral out of control on their own.
Under natural resources it is customary to understand the bodies and forces of nature that are used or can be used by people.
All mineral resources can be classified according to various criteria.
So, for example, by the nature of industrial and industrial use, minerals are conventionally divided into a number of groups. These are fuel and energy raw materials, ferrous and non-ferrous, noble, rare and rare-earth metals, chemical and agrochemical raw materials, technical and refractory raw materials, construction materials, precious and ornamental stones, underground waters and mineral mud.
And the risk is really dire damage, including the destruction of the Earth's ecosystem. These are two sides of the same problem. Exhaustion will not save us from climate change, while climate change will not stop our plunder of the planet. You see, in the 1970s, the Club of Rome and the authors of Limits to Development were accused of mis-models of their predictions. This was not true, but they made a fundamental mistake. They thought their job was to pose a problem and that someone would somehow do something to solve it.
Fuel and energy raw materials include oil, natural gas, bituminous and brown coal, oil shale and nuclear fuel (uranium and thorium). These are the main sources of energy for most types of transport, heat and nuclear power plants, blast furnaces, etc. All of them, except for nuclear fuel, are used in the chemical industry.
Of great importance in the world economy of metals, primarily ferrous. This group includes iron and iron alloys (steel, cast iron, ferroalloys), which form the basis for the development of modern mechanical engineering and construction.
The group of non-ferrous metals includes copper, lead, zinc, aluminum, titanium, chromium, nickel, cobalt, magnesium, tin. Copper is the second most important metal. Its main production is electrical wires. Lead is widely used in the production of antiknock additives to improve the quality of gasoline.
Of the noble metals, platinum, gold, and silver are of the greatest importance; smaller - metals of the platinum group (palladium, iridium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium). Metals of this group have a beautiful appearance in products; hence their name - "noble".
The group of rare earth metals includes yttrium, lanthanum and lanthanides (a family of 14 chemical elements with atomic number 85-71). Yttrium is used as an alloying addition to many alloys used in radio engineering. Lanthanum oxide is used in optical glasses and is a laser material.
The most important representatives of chemical and agrochemical raw materials are sulfur, salts, phosphorites and apatites, fluorspar. Nowadays, more than 120 mil. tons of artificial fertilizers. Sulfur is also used to produce sulfuric acid. From rock salt (sodium chloride), sodium hydroxide, soda, bleach and hydrochloric acid are obtained.
Technical and refractory raw materials are graphite, piezoquartz, asbestos, magnesite, mica, technical diamonds, clays, etc.
Many rocks are used as building materials or as raw materials for making building materials. Graphite has high temperature melting, therefore it is used in foundry.
Among the precious stones, diamonds are the main ones. Diamond is the hardest, most transparent substance in nature. In addition to diamonds, first-class precious stones are ruby, emerald, sapphire, etc.
Many rocks and minerals that have a beautiful color and can be polished are ornamental stones. They are used to make vases, boxes and decorations.
Groundwater - geothermal and mineralized - is of great industrial importance. Salt, iodine, bromine are obtained from them, the heat of groundwater is used by greenhouses, power plants, etc.
Academician A.G. Betekhtin distinguished the following classes of solid minerals: native elements, sulfur compounds (sulfides), halides, oxides and hydrates of oxides, salts of oxygen acids.
Gold, silver, copper, platinum, graphite, diamonds, sulfur, etc. are found as native elements. Sulfides (Latin “sulfur” - sulfur) include compounds of various elements with sulfur or salts of hydrogen sulfide acid. Among them, minerals are important, which are ores of lead (galena), zinc (sphalerite), copper (chalcopyrite), etc. Haloids (Greek "gals" - salt) are salts of holoid-hydrogen acids HCI and HF. Among them, the most common are chloride and fluoride compounds: NaCI (halite), KCI (sylvite) and fluorspar.
About 17% by weight crust are minerals represented by oxides and hydrates of oxides. These are compounds of various elements with oxygen and a hydroxide group (OH). These include, for example, quartz, cassiterite (pewter stone), corundum (alumina), uranite, etc.
An extensive group of minerals is represented by salts of oxygenic acids. These are carbonates, sulfates, phosphates, silskates, etc. According to scientists, about 1/3 of all minerals known in nature and about 3/4 of the weight of the earth's crust are silicates (Latin "silicium" - silicon).
Various minerals usually form stable natural associations called rocks. These are mineral aggregates of a certain composition and structure, formed as a result of the manifestation of certain geological processes. Depending on the conditions of origin, rocks are subdivided into igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.
Igneous rocks are formed as a result of the solidification of molten lava at depth (intrusive) or earth surface(effusive rocks). Their most important components are oxides - silica and alumina.
Sedimentary rocks are formed due to the redeposition of the destruction products of igneous (as well as metamorphic and sedimentary themselves) rocks. Chemical and biochemical sedimentary rocks include bauxite, laterite, phosphorite, brown iron ore, etc.
Metamorphic rocks arise as a result of a qualitative change in igneous and sedimentary rocks under the influence of high pressure and temperature. Thus, clays, as they sink to a depth, become compacted, turn into clay shales, and quartz sands and sandstones - into quartzites. Limestones turn into marbles. Metamorphic rocks contain many valuable minerals - iron, copper, lead, zinc, gold, tin, tungsten, etc.
According to the degree of exploration and study, mineral reserves are divided into four categories - A, B, C1, C2. Category A reserves have been studied and explored in detail, B and C1 reserves have been explored with relatively less detail. C2 - preliminary estimated. In addition, forecast reserves are allocated for the assessment of new deposits, basins and promising territories. Explored and probable reserves are combined into general geological reserves.
Russia is fully provided with all types of mineral raw materials and, in terms of their explored reserves, takes a leading place among largest countries the world.
More than half of the world's coal and peat reserves are concentrated in Russia, 1/3 of oil and gas, 2/5 iron ore, 2/5 of potassium salts, 1/4 of phosphorites and apatites, 1/15 of hydropower resources and half of the world's timber reserves.
