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Lecture 1 - Introduction
Logistics of class, class schedule, lab, grading What is economic geology? What are non-fuel mineral resources and how much do we use? What is the minerals cycle and how does it relate to sustainable development? Key concepts for the course
Sustainable development Mineral deposit Cross-cutting relationships Paragenesis Morphology of ore deposits
M. W. Hitzman
M. W. Hitzman
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Commodities with lesser value May be marketed in broad regions (but not truly globally (e.g. coal, iron/ steel, many industrial minerals, some dimension stone, some aggregate)
Commodities with low unit value Marketed mainly locally (sand, gravel, aggregate)
M. W. Hitzman
M. W. Hitzman
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Price (US$/tonne)
300 40 1,458 1,813 8,677,877 1,155 8,642 40 5,732 16,920,304 454 222
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M. W. Hitzman
M. W. Hitzman
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the institutions and structures that allow individuals and groups to develop collaboratively. the value of which is simply representative of the other forms of capital.
(from MMSD Rept., 2002)
Financial capital -
M. W. Hitzman
Using the concept of different types of capital, decisions can be divided into 3 groups
Win-win-win decisions Some decisions simultaneously
advance all the goals identified by sustainable development.
losses. These types of decisions require an agreed mechanism for reaching a decision.
M. W. Hitzman
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Assignment 1
How is the minerals industry perceived?
Use the world wide web to research the perceptions of the minerals industry. I would suggest you try and look up information on specific mineral projects. Some that might be interesting are:
Pebble project, Alaska Mountain top coal mining, West Virginia Grasberg, Indonesia You might also look at pages dealing with the industry as a whole try Mining Watch, the Minerals Policy Center or minesandcommunities.org.
Write a one to two page summary of your findings. Try and put your findings in the perspective of sustainable development concepts as outlined in the short paper by Richards (on Blackboard). Papers will be graded on both content and communications (grammar, spelling, organization). The paper is due in class on Friday, Aug. 26. Please email it to me at: mhitzman@mines.edu
M. W. Hitzman
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