FUTURE CONTRIBUTIONS OF

THE MINERALS INDUSTRY

• With few exceptions, no nation can achieve a high level of prosperity
without a reliable source of minerals to supply its manufacturing
industry.
• Through mining, emergent (Third World) or developing countries can
finance growth progressively by the export of raw mineral resources,
then by processing these raw materials prior to export, and finally by
achieving progressive industrial development (Fig. 1).
• Mineral reserves, upon which the future of the human race depends,
occupy less than 0.1% of the continental areas.
• Unfortunately, we are not at present sufficiently skilled to determine
exactly where they occur or how large they may be. They remain
elusive targets.
• Research in mining and metallurgical technology is essential.
• A new mineral discovery may locate a mine, but a technological
breakthrough can open up mines all around the world.
• The economic evolution of society that began in prehistoric time was
based then, as it is now, on minerals, and has led man into modern
times.
• The 104 elements of the periodic table, all but a few of which are
recovered from widely spaced, often remote, mineral deposits using a
variety of complex mining and metallurgical techniques, form the
foundation of modern society.
• They provide its heat, light, shelter, transportation, communication
and food.
Fig. 1 Stages of Mineral and Metal Production in an Industrial Country
• The standards of living of the industrialized nations—which developing
nations are striving to attain—are based upon minerals and societies
could not continue in their present state without them.
• Mineral deposits within the border of any country represent potential
national wealth: they can be transformed into actual material wealth
only by being mined and thus contribute to the gross national product.
• Among the benefits to the state are an increase in employment levels
- One mining job carries approximately a 5:1 multiplier effect
- An enhanced level of self-sufficiency
- Improved balance of trade.
• The latter results from fewer imports and greater exports of commodities
mined, a spirited search for more minerals, a build-up of technical
manpower levels by in-service training, attraction of overseas investment
capital, and creation of national wealth.
 PROCESSED MATERIAL OF
MINERAL ORIGIN: THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMY
GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT
Steel, Aluminum, Copper, Gold,
Other metals, Bricks, Glass, Cement,
Inorganic Chemicals, Fertilizers, etc.

DOMESTIC RECYCLED SCRAP AND WASTE

METALS MATERIALS:
Iron and Steel, Aluminum,
etc.

DOMESTIC MINERAL
RAW MATERIALS: IMPORTS INTO THE
Iron ore, copper ore, IMPORTED IMPORTS INTO THE COUNTRY OF
chrome ore, sand, ENERGY COUNTRY OF MINERAL PROCESSED
gravel, stones MATERIALS: RAW MATERIALS: MATERIALS OF
Coal, Petroleum Iron ore, copper ore, MINERAL ORIGIN:
bauxite, etc. Steel, Aluminum,
Fuel, etc.
DOMESTIC ENERGY
COUNTRY’S MATERIALS: EXPORTS FROM THE COUNTRY
NATURAL Coal, Petroleum, OF RAW MATERIALS AND
PROCESSED MATERIALS OF
RESOURCES: Uranium, etc. FOREIGN NATURAL MINERAL ORIGIN:
Rocks, Minerals, RESOURCES Molybdenum, Inorganic
Water, Air, etc. THE ROLE OF MINERALS IN AN INDUSTRIAL chemicals, Steel, fertilizers, etc.
ECONOMY
INNOVATIVE MINING METHODS
• These employ new or innovative principles or technologies, or
exploit uncommon resources, and that are not yet widely accepted in
practice.
• Good examples are auger mining and solution mining, which a relatively
short time ago were exploitation curiosities.
• Some of the novel methods examined are on the verge of winning wide
enough acceptance to justify a change of status; others will sink into
oblivion.
• Furthermore, other methods, as yet only concepts or undiscovered, will
most
certainly emerge to supplement the novel methods now recognized
 EXISTING METHODS
RAPID EXCAVATION
• Still more concept than practice, rapid excavation is intended to replace the
intermittent operations of rock breakage and materials handling in hard-rock
mining with a system of continuous extraction.
• It seeks to develop boring-machine technology to achieve truly rapid advance and
continuous operation in low-drillability rock.
• Not so much a mining method as an improved cycle and system of operations,
rapid excavation offers revolutionary prospects in many fields of mining, including
the boring of tunnels and shafts as well as raises.
• Truly continuous extraction and handling systems for hard-rock mining await a
breakthrough and remain a distant possibility; but progress is being made, and
the legitimacy of the goal is now widely accepted for both development and
exploitation.
 AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS
• Evolving from cost-driven concepts of mechanization and automation,
humanless or remote control in mining is especially attractive for
reasons of safety.
• Widespread adoption depends upon more technological ruggedness,
especially for the underground regime, which in turn should produce
economic feasibility.
 HYDRAULIC MINING
• Applications of water-jet and borehole-slurry technology are
advancing slowly into various unit operations (penetration,
fragmentation, and handling), toward a clear goal of an integrated
mining system.
• Extension from coal to harder rock is a companion objective.
 METHANE DEGASIFICATION
• Signs are favorable for rapid expansion of coalbed degasification
throughout the underground coalmining industry, in part on safety
grounds but also with economic justification.
• Drainage from seams that are not actively being mined is equally
attractive and coming to the fore as a competitive source of natural
gas.
 PROMISING METHODS
UNDERGROUND GASIFICATION
• Ripe with promise for difficult natural conditions, in situ coal
gasification and combustion has been burdened with economic risk
and technological difficulties.
• It involves the partial combustion of coal in place, generally through
boreholes, with the collection of a low-quality gas at the surface.
 UNDERGROUND RETORTING
• In situ oil shale retorting, in which pyrolysis of kerogen occurs in
place, faces some technological uncertainties but, more serious, has
yet to demonstrate economic viability.
• Unfortunately, its future is tied to that of the synthetic fuels industry,
which presently is held economic hostage by the international oil
cartel.
 MARINE MINING
• There are intriguing technological possibilities for mining rich
unconsolidated nodule and mud deposits in the deep oceans.
• However, for deposits located in international waters, political and legal
risks are too great until an acceptable treaty of the seas is negotiated.
• Exploitation appears much more likely for resources located within the so-
called exclusive economic zone (EEZ) declared by the United States.
• Deposits of interest include cobaltiferous seabed crusts, massive sulfides,
and deep offshore placers.
• Worldwide interest in the various marine
resources is high.
 QUESTIONABLE METHODS
EXTRATERRESTIAL MINING
• The furthest out of all the novel methods, colonization of outer space
(most likely site: the moon) is a must to justify risky, untried
extraterrestrial mining. Launching of US space station revived interest
in the concept.