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17* international Mining Congress and Exhibition of Turkey- IMCBT2001, ©2001, ISBN 975-395-417-4

Mining and Society: No Mining, No Future

P.N.Martens & L.Rattmann

Institute of Mining Engineering I, Aachen University of Technology, Aachen, Germany

ABSTRACT: At present, mining as a supplier of raw materials is an important foundation of our society. In
order to give an initial overview of the world mining industry, some facts and figures are presented, such as
the annual production of mining products compared to that of other commodities, the share of mining
products in world trade, and the contribution of the mining industry to gross domestic product. How important
mining is for society is illustrated by means of the dependence of the world's primary energy production on
mineral fuels and by means of the average consumption of mining products per person in the world. To
demonstrate the global presence and the actual role of mining products in everyday life, a car and the raw
materials required to build it is taken as an example. By extension from the present, an outlook for the future
role of mining in society is given. Although it is incontestable that renewable energy sources and recyclmg
will play an increasingly large role in society, mining will remain indispensable in the next few decades and
beyond İn satisfying society's demands for energy and raw materials.

1 INTRODUCTION billion people, this means that every single

inhabitant of the world needs at least 5 t of mining
Mining affects the natural environment. The use of products per year For the year 1900, the same
mineral fuels causes CO2 emissions and global calculation results in a figure of 0.5 t per person per
warming, and mining consumes non-renewable year. The expansion of world mining in this century
resources. These facts lead to the impression that has been encouraged by two factors; firstly, by the
were mining to be stopped immediately, everybody exceptional growth in the world population, and
could drive home and look forward to a better secondly, by a growing demand for mining products
future. But the situation with mining is not that per inhabitant. Projecting the present figure of 5 t
simple. Without mining there would be no homes; per person per year over an expected life of 60 years,
there would be no fuel or cars to drive. Without every human being will roughly consume more than
mining there would be no future for anybody to look 3001 of mining products (Figure 2), with natural
forward to. Mining has been the foundation of aggregates and mineral fuels accounting for a share
society since the earliest times. The beginning of of more than 90%. Of course, this average differs
mankind is often dated to the time of the first use of substantially between industrialised and developing
tools. These tools were made of flint mined from the countries. For example, in Germany the lifetime
earth. This aim of this paper is to point out the consumption of raw materials per person including
importance of mining for society now and in the natural aggregates has been calculated to be around
future. 1,2301 (Wellmer & Stein, 1998).
A comparison of mining and the primary industry
sector of agriculture, fishery and forestry is shown in
2 WORLD MINING - PRESENT FACTS AND Figure 3. For example, in 1998 production of cereals
FIGURES amounted to 2 billion t, production of wood to 3.5
billion t and the total production was 13.4 billion t.
In any discussion of world mining, it is normal to Thus, the tonnage of overall mining production is
first look at world mining production. The global 2.3 times higher than the tonnage of the overall
mining production of different commodities is production of agriculture, fishery and forestry. It
shown in Figure 1. All in all, total production was should also be mentioned that this level of
around 31 billion t in 1998. If one relates the overall agricultural production would be impossible without
mining production to the '98 world population of 5.9 mineral fertilizers provided by the mining industry.
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 World Mine Production 1998 (1000 t)
Diamonds 0 03
PGM 0 30
Gold 2 50
Electronic Metals 3 20
Silver 16
Cobalt 23
Niobium, Columbium 29
Tungsten 33
Uranium 35
Vanadium 45
Antimony 81
Molybdemum 135
Mica 195
Tin 219
Magnesium 380
Zirkonium 397
Dısthene 538
Graphite 590
Boron 776
Nickel 1,100
Asbestos 1,790
Dıatomıte 2,190
Titanium 2,770
Lead 3,180 The figures for global mining production only"
Chromium 4,160 show the tonnage of real mining products. The total
3
Fluorspar 4,750 world mass moved by mining is 17.8 km of rock
Barytes 5,800 per year (Figure 4). This is four times the amount
Zinc 7,400 moved by rivers before the influence of mankind
Talcum 7,600 (Neumann-Mahlkau, 1996). A rock volume of 17 8
8,500
km3 would be sufficient to cover the total land area
Manganese
of the Netherlands, which has an extension of
Feldspar 8,600
37,333 km2, to a depth of 0.5 m. Thus, mining is
Bentonite 9,600
expected to be by far the biggest mass mover in the
Magnesite 12,000
world.
Copper 12,300
Peat 26,000
Potash 26,000
Aluminium 28,000 World Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry
Terra alba 38,000 Production 1998 (10001)
Phosphate 45,000 Cereals 2,079,928
Sulfur 56,000 Roots & tubers 648,132
Gypsum 102,000 Sugar crops & sweeteners 1,515,473
Salt 190,000 Pulses 56,123
Nuts 6,767
• ndustoal sands 300,000
Oil-beanng crops 478,749
Clay 500,000 Vegetables 549,838
Iron 563,000 Fruits 510,217
Lignite 848,000 Feedstuffs 3,144,275
Natural Gas (Oil Equivalent) 2,121,300 Beverage crops & spices 18,139
Vegetable Fibres 18,435
Crude Oil 3,578,000
Livestock products 777,300
Hard Coal 3,740,000
Fishery products 113,100
Quarry Stone 4,100,000 Forestry products* 3,521,000
Sand & Gravel 15,000,000 TOTAL 13,437,477
TOTAL 31,356 538 * Wood calculated at a density of 0 8 t/m1
Figure I World mining production, 1998 (WellmerA Wagner, Figure 3 World agriculture, fishery and forestry production
2000) (FAOSTAT database)

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^
 In this respect, the first impression of mining is
confirmed. Mining produces incredible mass flows
in connection with fundamental impacts on nature.
The economic significance of mining related to its
contribution to the GDP and world trade is rather
small. So, what is the benefit of mining and what
exactly does it signify for mankind?
One of the omnipresent outputs of mining is
energy. The world production of primary energy in
1995 was 363.04 quadrillion Btu. This energy was
provided almost entirely by coal (25%), oil (40%),
natural gas (21%) and uranium (6%). Only 8% was
supplied by renewable energy sources (Figure 7).

So as to give an idea of the economic impact of

world mining, the contribution of mining to the
world gross domestic product (GDP) can be
estimated. The total value of global mine production
in 1998 was about US $1,000 billion. Compared
with the world GDP in 1998 of a little less than US
$30,000 billion, this means the contribution of
mining is roughly 3% of world GDP.
Another interesting aspect of mining is its
position in world trade (Figure 5). The total value of
world exports of mining products in 1999 was US
$556 billion or around 10% of total world exports. More than 92% of the world's primary energy
The export value of fuels was US $401 billion or 7% production is based on mineral fuels. In other words,
of total world exports (WTO, 2001). if mining and mineral fuels were to be taken away,
immediately, 9 out of every 10 lights would go out,
9 out of every 10 cars would not run, 9 out of every
10 heaters would stop working, and so on.
All of these figures can only give a rough
impression of the importance of mining for society.
The best way to show how essential mining is for
society is to have a look at everyday life and the
things surrounding us. For instance, let's have a look
at die car. Figure 7 shows how many mining
products are needed to build a single car. All
together, around 5,000 kg of ore and other mining
products are required to produce a car, and this is
only one example. Nothing that surrounds us would
be possible without mining. In other words, mining
products are a part of almost everything.
Coming back to society's attitude towards
mining, which is often focused exclusively on the
negative impacts on the natural environment, İt must
be said that mining transfers natural resources from
nature to society, and therefore mining is impossible
without minimum impact on nature. On the other

217
hand, it ıs the aim of this article to clearly point out limited natural resources m a responsible manner
that we all need mining products to satisfy our Recycling and the use of renewable energy sources
needs. An additional aspect is the fact that unlike must be encouraged So, let us now take a closer
traffic, agriculture or urban development, the impact look at these two aspects m the future.
of mining on nature is often confined to a limited The question of future developments m the world
period of time. Reclamation often takes place after energy supply was discussed at the 17th World
mining operations, restoring nature to its original Energy Congress in Houston in 1998 (Semrau,
state. 1998). With respect to the importance of primary
energy supplies from mimng, the congress came to
the following results: the restructuring of our energy
system towards the use of regenerative energy
supplies will be possible m the long term,
approximately into the second half of the next
century During the next decades, however, primary
energy supplies from mining will shll dominate in
meeting the increasing demand for energy,
especially in developing countries and in threshold
countries. For this purpose, however, efficient and
ecofhendly technology for energy supply will be
required.
A scenario of four steps was drafted
1 Improvement of technologies for the current
energy system, i.e., technologies for fossil
energy carriers until approximately the year
2015.
2. Development of new technologies to supply
current conventional energies until
approximately the year 2050.
3 Additional use of new energy systems on a small
scale until approximately the year 2050
4 Use of regenerative energy sources on a large
scale, from approximately the year 2050
onwards.

Figure 7 Mining products in a car (Mining Industry Council

Missouri, 99)

At this point, it should also be mentioned that

nowhere else is the depletion of natural resources
more omnipresent than in mining, and that nobody
else is more aware of the limitation of natural
resources than a miner. However, a critical note is
that the mining industry often regards natural
resources simply from the aspect of the deposit
itself.

3 WORLD MINING - FUTURE

DEVELOPMENTS

AU of this shows that mining is an important

foundation of our present society. But that does not
justify everything the mining industry does. Mining
now and in the future has to take place in an
ecologically, economically and socially justifiable
way. Miners and non-miners have to come together
to realise that aim. The goal must be to handle Figures Global Energy Perspective (Semrau, 1998) .

218
 The development of world energy consumption such as petroleum, lead and zinc, will be exhausted
could, for instance, look like a scenario in the study sometime in the next decades. However, this is not
"Global Energy Perspectives", which was submitted the case, because if one considers the development
by the International Institute for Applied Systems of the statistical lifetime of supposedly scarce
Analysis (IIASA) and the World Energy Council resources over the years, it can be seen that this has
(Figure 8). remained constant for decades. For instance, in 1955
It can be said that at least until the year 2050, and the statistical lifetime of zinc was around 25 years,
probably longer, mining will have an outstanding yet there are still no signs of a scarcity of this
role in the world energy supply. resource. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that
The question of the future significance of mining new deposits are still being discovered today. On the
for supplying mineral resources may be clarified by other hand, technical progress enables mining to
taking a look at the metals sector. In 1992, the exploit deposits, the exploitation of which would
consumption of the non-ferrous metals aluminium, have been unthinkable some years ago. The quality
copper, zinc, lead and tin amounted to around 46 of mining operations will continue to be improved in
Mio. t in the western world (Figure 9). The the future in every respect so that they may meet
proportion of secondary resources in total resource growing requirements.
consumption varied between 18 % for zinc and 52 %
for lead. This means that a considerable part of the
consumption of these metals is already covered by
recycled materials. Incidentally, this is also true of
natural aggregates, where hardly any improvement
can be expected in recycling rates, at least in highly
populated areas.

Figure 10. Statistical lifespans of different mineral resources

(Welimer, 1998).

Consequently, two things can be said about the

Figure 9. Consumption of Base Metals in the Western World future significance of mimng. One is that until the
(Metalstatistics, 1993). second half of the next century the world energy
supply will depend largely on primary energy
However, it remains doubtful whether there will sources obtained by mining. The other is mat in the
be a further increase in the proportion of recycling future, like today, the demand for mineral resources
during the next decades due to the growing demand will essentially be met by mining.
for resources. Recycling as a source of resources has
its technical, economical and also ecological limits,
since a recycling quota of 100 % would only be 4 CONCLUSIONS
possible with high inputs of energy and other
resources, so that precisely from the point of view of The development of mankind and its standard of
resource-saving, a recycling quota of 100 % is not living have always essentially depended on the
desirable. Consequently, mining will remain an availability of mining products. Technical progress
important, maybe even the most important, supplier in the past and today is unthinkable without the raw
for the worldwide demand in resources in the long materials provided by mining. Miners have always
run. This is confirmed by a look at the statistical been aware of the fact that their work is an
lifespans of some resources (Figure 10) (Wellmer, intervention in nature and that they remove non-
1998). renewable resources. As a mining university, we
Statistical lifespans could indeed give the emphasise this responsibility and teach environment-
impression that the world's important resources, and resource-friendly methods.

219
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