Annotation
Miring has been undertake around the world for thousands of years. Everyhing in existence, at least initaly, has to be either grown or mined. Our high standard of living today is totally underpinned by the products of mining.But the success of mining from a production perspective has not always been matched by success from aneconomic perspective.The uniqueness of minerals as economic products accounts for the complexity of mineral economics and the business of mining, Minerals are unevenly distributed and,unlike agricultural or forest products,cannot reproduce or be replaced. A mineral deposit may therefore be considered a depleting asset whose production is restricted to the area in which it occurs. These faciors impose limittions on a mining company in the areas of business practices, financing and production. Becase its mineral assets are constantly being depleted, a mining company must discover additional reserves or acquire them by purchase to stay in the mining business Exploitation, the fourth stage of mining ,is associated with the actual recovery of minerals from the earth in quantity. Although development may continue, the emphasis in the production stage is on production.Usually only enough development is done prior to exploitation to ensure that production,once started,can continue uninterruped throuhout the life of the mine. This book investigates and promotes understanding of economic and policy issues, programmes and strategies for exploration, mining beneficiation and marketing acivities.
