Abstract
The purpose of this section of the volume is to review briefly the most important mineral commodities so that a handy reference is available. The tonnage of world production was selected as the limiting factor for inclusion in this study. For metals, the cut-off is at cobalt with world production of 28,000 tons, equal to one shipload. Thus mercury (6500 tons) and rhenium (10 tons, or one truck load) are not reviewed. Among the non-metallic minerals, the lower limit is 500,000 tons per year, equivalent to one medium-sized quarry. Commodities with world production lower than these sizes are of minor economic significance. Chapters on the three precious metals, diamonds, and gemstones are included. This results in data on 38 commodities, listed in Table 4 (see page 93) according to tonnage.
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© 1984 Dowden & Culver, Inc.
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Wolfe, J.A. (1984). Introduction. In: Mineral Resources a World Review. Environmental Resource Management Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5560-8_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5560-8_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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