GEO-113: ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY

INTRODUCTION TO RESOURCES

LECTURE NOTES

 

 

I.     Introduction

 

A resource is any material necessary or required for life or civilization to civilization, or that has some value (monetary or aesthetic) to people or society. It must be recoverable.

 

What is a resource now may not be in the future (and visa-versa) and what may have been a resource in the past may not be now. Depends on changes in technology and ethics.

 

There are two types of resources, renewable and non-renewable.

1)    Renewable: replaceable on a human time scale ­ trees and food.

2)    Non-renewable: replaceable on a geological time scale ­ oil, coal, metals.

 

As population increases, demand for resources increases, usually at a rate higher than the increase in population. Due to higher standards of living globally. May be offset by improving efficiency of usage. Some countries are inefficient users of resources, others are more efficient users.

 

How do you estimate how long resource supplies will last?

 

1)    Estimate amount of resource available. Can be a difficult task. Many assumptions may have to be made. Information may be held by private companies or governments that want to keep it secret for economic or security reasons.

2)    Determine rate of use. This is easier to quantify. Global consumption has been increasing 2-5% per year for many resources.

3)    Divide how much you think you have by rate of consumption to calculate depletion time. Often reach an economic depletion (cost of resource becomes so high due to scarcity that no one can afford to use it anymore) before everything is used up.

 

 

II.   Resource Categories

 

1)    Reserves: known deposits that can be recovered economically with present technology.

2)    Sub-economic or conditional resources (reserves): known deposits, but not economic to recover at the present time. Either too low grade or need new technology in order to exploit at a reasonable cost.

3)    Hypothetical: not yet found, but anticipate finding in known area.

4)    Speculative: unanticipated deposit, but might find in new areas.

 

Typically, amount of a resource we have is given as the Proven Reserve.  Equal to all of the reserves plus some percentage of the sub-economic reserves. Usually do not include any of the hypothetical or speculative (especially) resource.