mineral exploitation

• laskys principle: states as the purity of a mineral decreases the amount of the mineral present increases
• mineral deposits can be categorised according to whether the technology exists to exploit them and whether its economically viable
• preparation for mining involves obtaining detailed information on the mineral, this takes a long time and is often expensive
• stock is all the material present in the lithosphere, this includes all materials that can and cannot be exploited now or ever
• the resource is larger than the reserve, the resource includes all material theoretically available for exploitation, including minerals that cant be exploited now but can with realistic price increase or improvement in technology
• reserves are the amount of resource that can be exploited now, economically using technology that already exists.
• proven reserves are when sufficient exploration has been carried out, this includes trial drilling to help accurately investigate the quantity of the mineral that can be economically extracted
• inferred reserves is when the present of the mineral in the reserve can be predicted from knowledge of the geological structures present. unable to guess amount of mineral that can be extracted
• probable reserves are a reserve that has sufficient information about the deposit is known, so quantity that can extracted can be estimated however further exploration is justified.
• factors that limit the viability of exploitation include: absence of technology, financial costs, environmental impact.