Resource Economics
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They will also learn about resource management, including environmental perspectives on the field. Many programs include classes on ethics, even though it may seem that ethics have no place in traditional economics. Understanding the ethics behind an issue, however, can help explain certain economic trends; can help shape policy; and can nudge the economist into thinking of things such as human health, the value of the environment, and the protection of habitat for biodiversity in non-economic terms. Just being a good number-cruncher does not make you an economist.
You will also need to be able to explain complex theories to the lay person.
Several other kinds of resources need to be introduced. An abundant resource is quite similar to a perpetual resource. The field of Natural Resource Economics seeks to value natural resources to aid in the optimization of the production of goods and services from agricultural lands while protecting the environment. Noncorroding lead as a cable covering has been replaced by plastics. Obsolescent products include tin cans, tin foil, the schoolhouse slate blackboard, and radium in medical technology. Bureau of Mines Bulletin , , p.
You will have to write papers in the major, and probably in your career, too. Economists also need to be open-minded; sometimes, the traditional way of understanding a theory turns out to be out-dated or overly simplistic. Open-minded economists lead the way in changing policies so that they are in keeping with the scientific understanding and social needs of the times.
Most economists hold masters or doctoral degrees, as these degrees are usually needed to work in private industries and in a position of responsibility within a firm or agency.
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The perpetual resource concept is a complex one because the concept of resource is complex and changes with the advent of new technology usually more efficient recovery , new needs, and to a lesser degree with new economics e. On the one hand, a material and its resources can enter a time of shortage and become a strategic and critical material an immediate exhaustibility crisis , but on the other hand a material can go out of use, its resource can proceed to being perpetual if it was not before, and then the resource can become a paleoresource when the material goes almost completely out of use e.
Some of the complexities influencing resources of a material include the extent of recyclability, the availability of suitable substitutes for the material in its end-use products, plus some other less important factors. The Federal Government suddenly became compellingly interested in resource issues on December 7, , shortly after which Japan cut the U.
This was the worst case for resource availability, becoming a strategic and critical material. After the war a government stockpile of strategic and critical materials was set up, having around different materials which were purchased for cash or obtained by trading off U. In the longer term, scarcity of tin later led to completely substituting aluminum foil for tin foil and polymer lined steel cans and aseptic packaging substituting for tin electroplated steel cans. Resources change over time with technology and economics; more efficient recovery leads to a drop in the ore grade needed.
Natural Resource Economics
The average grade of the copper ore processed has dropped from 4. Cobalt had been in an iffy supply status ever since the Belgian Congo world's only significant source of cobalt was given a hasty independence in and the cobalt-producing province seceded as Katanga, followed by several wars and insurgencies, local government removals, railroads destroyed, and nationalizations.
This was topped off by an invasion of the province by Katangan rebels in that disrupted supply and transportation and caused the cobalt price to briefly triple. While the cobalt supply was disrupted and the price shot up, nickel and other substitutes were pressed into service. Following this, the idea of a "Resource War" by the Soviets became popular. Rather than the chaos that resulted from the Zairean cobalt situation, this would be planned, a strategy designed to destroy economic activity outside the Soviet bloc by the acquisition of vital resources by noneconomic means military?
An important way of getting around a cobalt situation or a "Resource War" situation is to use substitutes for a material in its end-uses. Some criteria for a satisfactory substitute are 1 ready availability domestically in adequate quantities or availability from contiguous nations, or possibly from overseas allies, 2 possessing physical and chemical properties, performance, and longevity comparable to the material of first choice, 3 well-established and known behavior and properties particularly as a component in exotic alloys, and 4 an ability for processing and fabrication with minimal changes in existing technology, capital plant, and processing and fabricating facilities.
An important way of replacing a resource is by synthesis, for example, industrial diamonds and many kinds of graphite , although a certain kind of graphite could be almost replaced by a recycled product. Most graphite is synthetic, for example, graphite electrodes, graphite fiber, graphite shapes machined or unmachined , and graphite powder.
Another way of replacing or extending a resource is by recycling the material desired from scrap or waste. This depends on whether or not the material is dissipated or is available as a no longer usable durable product. Reclamation of the durable product depends on its resistance to chemical and physical breakdown, quantities available, price of availability, and the ease of extraction from the original product.
A good example where recycling makes a big difference is the resource availability situation for graphite , where flake graphite can be recovered from a renewable resource called kish, a steelmaking waste created when carbon separates out as graphite within the kish from the molten metal along with slag.
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After it is cold, the kish can be processed. Several other kinds of resources need to be introduced. An abundant resource is one whose material has so far found little use, such as using high-aluminous clays or anorthosite to produce alumina, and magnesium before it was recovered from seawater. An abundant resource is quite similar to a perpetual resource. Identified resources are those whose location, grade, quality, and quantity are known or estimated from specific geologic evidence.
Reserves are that part of the reserve base that can be economically extracted at the time of determination; [16] reserves should not be used as a surrogate for resources because they are often distorted by taxation or the owning firm's public relations needs. Harrison Brown and associates stated that humanity will process lower and lower grade "ore". Iron will come from low-grade iron-bearing material such as raw rock from anywhere in an iron formation, not much different from the input used to make taconite pellets in North America and elsewhere today.
As coking coal reserves decline, pig iron and steel production will use non-coke-using processes i. The aluminum industry could shift from using bauxite to using anorthosite and clay. Magnesium metal and magnesia consumption i.
Sulfur will be obtained from pyrites , then gypsum or anhydrite. Metals such as copper , zinc , nickel , and lead will be obtained from manganese nodules or the Phosphoria formation sic!
Natural resource economics deals with the supply, demand, and allocation of the Earth's natural resources. One main objective of natural resource economics is. "Resource Economics" is the understanding and application of economic principles to resource management. Although it is related to Environmental Economics.
These changes could occur irregularly in different parts of the world. While Europe and North America might use anorthosite or clay as raw material for aluminum, other parts of the world might use bauxite, and while North America might use taconite, Brazil might use iron ore. New materials will appear note: Recycling will become more common and more efficient note: Ultimately, minerals and metals will be obtained by processing "average" rock. Rock, tonnes of "average" igneous rock, will yield eight tonnes of aluminum, five tonnes of iron, and 0.
The USGS model based on crustal abundance data and the reserve-abundance relationship of McKelvey, is applied to several metals in the Earth's crust worldwide and in the U. The potential currently recoverable present technology, economy resources that come closest to the McKelvey relationship are those that have been sought for the longest time, such as copper, zinc, lead, silver , gold and molybdenum.
Metals that do not follow the McKelvey relationship are ones that are byproducts of major metals or haven't been vital to the economy until recently titanium , aluminum to a lesser degree.