Resources Flashcards
(30 cards)
What is a resource?
Resources cover a wide scope of natural resources that provide value and use whether that is a mineral deposit, water or energy.
What are stock resources?
They are non-renewable and finite.
They are created at rates considerably slower than their use.
They include fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, as well as uranium used in nuclear power stations.
What are flow resources?
They are renewable and ongoing.
They are either immediately available, such as tidal advance/retreat and geothermal power, or created at comparable rates to their consumption such as timber for fuelwood.
What is a measured resource?
Geological conditions including the confirmation of the grade of the deposit and has allowed for detailed mine planning.
Estimated with sufficient confidence to allow evaluation of the economic viability
What is a indicated resource?
Geological conditions including the grade of the deposit can be reasonably assumed which has allowed for some mine planning.
Estimated with sufficient confidence to allow evaluation of the economic viability
What is a inferred resource?
The economic viability cant be evaluated in a meaningful way.
Estimated using limited information so unlikely further exploration without increased resource scarcity/value.
What is a possible resource?
A site where it is expected that the majority of the inferred resources could be upgraded to indicated mineral resources with continued exploration.
Estimated using limited information so unlikely further exploration without increased resource scarcity/value.
What are proven reserves?
These are the economically viable part of measured resources.
Economic extraction of the measured resource is justified.
What are probable reserves?
These are the economically viable part of measured/indicated resources.
Economic extraction of the measured/indicated resource is justified.
How has mineral exploration changed over time?
Mineral resources have been mined for centuries but due to their uneven distribution, mining on a large scale is gradual and time consuming.
In recent decades, remote sensing by aerial and satellite data, such as infrared photography and radar scanning has sped up exploration considerably.
Where are most mineral reserves located - regional geology
Many found in Cratons (vast areas of land covered by just rocks/minerals - imagine if Dartmoor was all a tor).
Also found in fold mountains along plate boundaries.
Some found in veins of igneous rocks and within marine sediments.
Where are most mineral reserves - Wider scope location
Largely in the northern hemisphere due to larger landmass.
3 main factors of mineral exploitation?
Mineral content of the rock - Low grade ores produce a high volume of waste rock but high grade ores are often in isolated locations such as northern Sweden.
Geological conditions - Its cheaper and easier to extract ores at shallow depths in open cast mines compared to deep depths extracting from narrow veins in compact rocks.
Accessibility in relation to markets - Low value minerals compared to their size are more costly to transport across the world, however the impact of this has been reduced with the development of bulk carrier ships.
What is a resource frontier?
They are the boundaries between the currently mined and unmined minerals.
The resource frontiers are the furthest point mined in a technological and geographical sense.
What is a resource peak?
The period of highest production.
Tends to be when around half of the resource has been used up, followed by a decline in resource production.
How can managing resource peaks and future supply be difficult?
Difficulty in measuring size and nature of future resource demand.
In the future more resources may become economically exploitable as societies and technologies develop.
How does the Hubberts Curve show mineral exploitation over time?
The Hubberts Curve is a normally distributed curve showing an increase in resource production, a resource peak and a decrease in resource production until the resource is fully depleted.
In some cases production can briefly rise after the resource peak if technology advances.
Define Sustainability
Ensuring that resources are not extracted so quickly that they leave future generations without sufficient supplies, or in such a way that causes large-scale environmental damage.
What are the elements of sustainability?
Social
Economic
Environmental
Political
Which are more sustainable: Stock or Flow Resources?
Flow resources are often more sustainable, however, if demand for the resource is higher than the production, it can become unsustainable as people wont have enough to meet their needs.
What is the EIA?
The Environmental Impact Assessment which aims to ensure that the environmental impacts are considered and are avoided/mitigated before the project goes ahead.
Are EIAs effective?
EIAs can be very effective, however, are not often used in LICs and countries with few environmental laws and regulations.
What are happening to production and consumption of water and energy?
There have been dramatic increases in production and consumption in the last century.
Coal and oil dominates energy production but that is shifting towards natural gas, nuclear power and renewables.
What % of world energy consumption is dependant on fossil fuels?
85%, and is unlikely to change significantly in the near future.
