Economic Geology Principles and Practice: Metals, Minerals, Coal and Hydrocarbons - Introduction to Formation and Sustainable Exploitation of Mineral Deposits
ECONOMIC GEOLOGY PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE: METALS, MINERALS, COAL AND HYDROCARBONS - INTRODUCTION TO FORMATION AND SUSTAINABLE EXPLOITATION OF MINERAL DEPOSITS
Civilization depends on freely available raw materials. To assure supply, ores and minerals extracted by mining must continuously be replaced by new reserves. Beyond satisfying the present demand, an additional requirement results from the growth of the world's population and its increasing standard of living. This implies that exploitable reserves are identified and prepared for mining, out of previously assumed but not sufficiently known, or undiscovered mineral resources. Commonly, this activity proceeds in several stages, from reconnaissance exploration for potential mineral deposits (target generation), through detailed follow-up exploration (investigation of targets), to evaluation (development of a new mine, or final rejection). Stages may be omitted, for example in cases of companies buying prospective mineral occurrences, or when new orebodies in active mining districts ("brown fields") are discovered and developed. secure provision of metals and minerals depends not only on geological and technical availability but also on economic, institutional, societal and legal conditions. In an ideally free and well regulated market economy, raw materials supply would never be a problem. Indeed, it is wonderful how well market forces work in our real world, although many regions are far from free. Conflicts and crises surrounding the petroleum and gas markets, however, are a warning that national and international political efforts to ensure essential supplies should never cease. Of course, the same is true for scientific and technological work to provide needed metals and minerals. activities that serve mineral raw materials supply, from exploration to extraction, including mine closure and reclamation, must be optimized according to the three criteria: nvironmentally sound; ustainable; 3 socially compatible. same criteria rule the provision of underground waste repositories, mines that are specifically designed for deep disposal. Waste storage mines are constructed in analogy to natural toxic and radioactive rock bodies that have been conserved for many million years. s chapter presents essential geological concepts and practices concerning the life-cycle of a mine, from reconnaissance exploration to closure.