THE EXPLOITATION OF MINERAL RESOURCES® T.S. LOVERING Dr, Lowering (PhD, Miimesota, 1924) wes professor af economic peology at the Uni- ersity oj Michigan for many years and is now staff réstarch geologist of the U.S. Geological Survex. Tikis article was prepared as one of a series of papers on “The World's Natural Resources” pretonted at the AAAS Centemaial Celebration in Wash- ington, B. C., September 13-17, 1948, HE: search for minerals anil the exploitation vf rich deposits have contributed, and will continue to coutribute, much toward direct- ig the course of world powers, Tt is my hope that if we understand the social and political influence of mineral resonrees now, we may avoid the dis- astrous consequences of mineral depletion suffered by many once-powerful nations, ‘The efficiency and adaptability of an industrial civilizaeion are clearly dependent on minerals as well as on men. In 2 sense minerals are the fool of industry: iron and fuel are 8 chief sources of strength and en- , copper, Tead, and zine are essential to its growth, and manganese, chromium, niekel, molybdenum, tngs- ten, and many minor elements are metal vitamins absolutely essential to its health, A few countries, including both the Soviet Union and the United States, have an abundance af iron and coal, but none fu a satisfactory supply of all the casentinls to the well-balance:| diet, All suffer from a det ciency in some of the metal vitamins; the United States is quite dependent on foreign sources for manganese, chromium, nickel, tin, and several others, Mineral deposits have many unique character- istics. Their seemingly haphazard position is fixed by some geologic accident of the remote past and not by our convenience; they are finite, nonrenew- able resources, and once taken from the grunt there is no secon! ctop; duriug exploitation the unit cost of production rises, especially as a de nears exlaustion; continuing production re- quires discovery of new deposits—or extensions af known bodies, year alter year; and, finally, most mineral products are either expended in their first use, as with coal and oil, or else last for dev ades-—even centuries—and may be reused over and over, as are iron and gold. The nonexpendables accumulate through the years in reservoirs of po- tential serap As sone mineral deposits are found only in sedi *Poblishel by permission of de Director, U, S, Geological Survey. mentary rocks and athers only in clase associa- tio with ignectts bodies, the rock formations ex- posed in a country suggest its probable mineral resources, Moreover, sedimentary deposits of the same age commonly contain similar deposits over witness the coals of the Carbonifer- ous period in North America and Europe, and the remarkably similar sedimentary iron of pre- inn time in the Lake Superior region, north. ern India, castern Brazil, and central Labrador. Ores related to igneous rocks show far less tendency to age correlation than do the sedimen- tary deposits; graphic localization is apparent, and many well- defined mineral provinces have been recognized in whieh the ores affiliated with igneous rocks are characterized hy a certwin suite of metals and the absence of others. In Bolivia tin is a common metal in the mineralized areas assceiated with quarts porphyries of Tertiary age; a large number of mineral districts in the United States are also associated with quartz porphyries of that age, but ore is completely Iaeking. The special conditions of environment and geog- raphy that cause peat, or salt, or bog iron beds to form today are restricted to small areas irregu- larly seattered about the globe; so, in general, have they been in the geologic past. The haphazard posi- tion of present-day volcanoes in so-called voleanic belts suggests the unsystemnatic and restricted oc- currence of ores related to ancient igneens batlies. ‘The spotty distribution of mineral deposits is most unfortunate for a disumited world ; even such com- paratively well-distributed sedimentary formations as coal have a yery erratic occurrence on our planet; Somth America, Africa, northern and rope, and much of Asia contain almost no first-rate black coal ; in contrast, about half the world’s reserves are concentrated in a small part af the United States. Mineral deposits genetically related to igneous rocks are, as a rule, even more localized. Some striking examples of this group are provided hy nickel, molybdenum, and quartz crystal. Nearly all the world’s supply of nickel instead of a time relation, a geo