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Industrial minerals directory: A world guide to producers and processors
Book reviews
ways be related to changes in prices, preferences and cost functions. Recycling and reuse is significantly improved within the aluminium sector. However, it is interesting to observe that the various applications of secondary aluminium within automotive industries have recently been hampered while aluminium prices once again are increasing. Unfortunately, many recycling schemes have been stranded not because they do not contribute to a more sustainable materials economy, but because the additional financial outlays could not be justified not even on a very long-term scale. In some cases this outcome could be labelled market failure, but one should not omit policy failure as an equally important explanation. I find it very important to raise questions related to our material consumption, and particularly non-renewable natural resources. Alternative visions must be proposed. The visions, however, must be made applicable for influencing ongoing unsustainable practices. We need to develop perceptions and tools which can bring us beyond current practices. Thus, it surprises me that the authors present a paper without proposing how this secondary materials society will be achieved. The analysis of raw materials exporting developing countries is naive and superficial. If we should reduce our demand for their virgin resources, domestic industrial diversification must be promoted. However, this is not a new proposal and continuous attempts have been made since the 1960s. By focusing on revolutionary partnership and reducing international trade I see little hope for these countries, and very few realistic prescriptions of lasting progress in the more materialised and diversified world. What I am looking for are visions and actual proposals that accept technological changes within a dynamic politicaleconomic context. The authors focus on joint efforts, and I question whether downsizing necessarily will solve the more basic problems of unsustainable economic development. Economies of scale have a priori been defined as environmentally hazardous, a normative commitment which I very much question. I have found many examples of large economic entities which due to their financial solidity have
286
been more capable of taking the risk of challenging conventional consumption patterns and promoting recycling schemes which might be more applicable and relevant on a global scale than what certain non-profit organizations are currently doing without any references to budgetary restraints. lnnovatory practices are widespread, and even if these changes only are creating reformist partnerships, they have created significant competence and experience which subsequently can trigger more revolutionary changes of consumption patterns.
Audun Ruud Centre fbr Development and the Environment University cfOs10, Norway
The Industrial Minerals HandyBook: A Guide to Markets, Specifications and Prices Peter W Harben Metal Bulletin. New York (1994) 147pp Industrial Minerals Directory: A World Guide to Producers and Processors Joyce Grifiths (ed) Metal Bulletin, New York (1991) 542 pp A book covering the whole subject of industrial minerals is not particularly easy to write considering its diversity in terms of materials (which include both minerals and rocks) and applications. These two volumes published by Metal Bulletin, together, seem to have handled the subject quite well, complementing each other in terms of coverage and manner of presentation. Peter W Harben’s Industrial Minerals Hundybook comes in two parts. Part I attempts to provide the reader with a profile of each mineral (or more appropriately, mineral commodity since some are rock materials), which includes scientific, technical and economic information such as properties, uses, quality demand (specification), capacity, capacity utilization, market (trend), influence (the types of industries and other factors affecting its usage), major producing, exporting and importing countries, FOB prices (for various grades), HTS codes and competition
(possible substitutes). The list of mineral commodities, and the range of information on each, are not by any means exhaustive, but the coverage is nevertheless comprehensive for most users. The mineral commodities are arranged in alphabetical order which facilitates easy reference. Part II contains tabulated information on world industrial minerals production, distribution of production by region and relevant commercial information such as conversion factors, specifications, properties, prices, etc. Harben’s compilation contains a wealth of information which would be useful to those in the scientific and technical professions such as (exploration) geologists, mining engineers and mineral technologists as well the more commercially inclined such as mineral economists, market analysts, mineral traders, and producers and consumers of industrial minerals. Students and academicians will also find the book interesting and useful as it provides an insight into the extensiveness and diversity of application of industrial minerals and contains information not commonly found in standard text books. However, this publication is not without its shortcomings. Two major industrial mineral commodities, namely, ball clay and dimension stone, which are produced, consumed and traded in significant quantities worldwide, are noticeably missing. Certain parts of the section on ‘world industrial minerals production’ could be improved. For example, rare earth production could, in fact, be split into monazite, xenotime and bastnaesite, to portray rare earth production more accurately. Similarly, production of titanium minerals could have included figures for Ti-slag and leucoxene, two other significant sources of titanium. As the author had admitted, the information seems to have a bias towards the North American and to a lesser extent European scenario. If the book is to command a global appeal, its future editions will have to rectify this shortcoming by the inclusion of more comprehensive information from the South-east and East Asian as well as the Latin American regions which are areas of growth in the immediate future. In his enthusiasm to squeeze in as much information as possible, some of the illustrations and flow
Resources Policy Volume 20 Number 4 December
1994
Book reviews
charts have been rendered close to being illegible. However, all taken, as the author has aptly chosen the title - this is clearly a handy book to have, both for the novice as well as the experienced mineral hand. The Industrial Minerals Directoyv edited by Joyce Griffiths provides an excellent complement to Harben’s Handvhook. This is the second edition of the directory, the first of which was published in 1986. The directory contains information on industrial mineral producers worldwide and includes mineral processing companies in addition to those which own or operate mines or quarries. For each company, where available, information on contact addresses, corporate structure, mining and processing activities (location of mines and plants), products handled, principal sales agents and other relevant information are given. This second edition is essentially an update and incorporates the many changes in structure and ownership which have taken place since the last publication. The layout remains the same with an alphabetical arrangement of countries, each comprising an alphabetical company listing, followed by a buyers’ guide arranged by product. A new addition to this volume is the inclusion of a section listing European and North American associations with mineral connections. Jayne North (compiler) has done an excellent job of the compilation bearing in mind the enormity of the task. The information is comprehensive and well organized for easy reference. Consumers of industrial minerals will find this compilation extremely useful as it provides worldwide information on possible suppliers. Being generally high bulk low unit value materials, transport cost will be of economic importance and availability of suppliers close to the consuming ccntres is generally desirable. The directory would also be useful to the mineral economists, market analysts. mineral traders and producers (and potential producers) of industrial minerals who would be interested in forecasting the supply of and demand for the various industrial minerals.
La-v-Hock Teoh Geological Survey @‘Malay.ria Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia Resources Policy
Volume 20 Number 4 Decendw
World Index of Resources and Population David Hargreaves, Monica Eden-Green and Joan Dcvaney Dartmouth, 1994. 417pp What do the following six countries have in common: United Arab Emirates, Australia, Norway, ex USSR, UK and USA? The answer, quite surprisingly, is that these countries are considered by Hargreaves et al to have the best long-term investment potential for mineral production. The selection is made from a list containing 70 of the world’s most important mineral producing countries. The World Index goes on to analyse all minerals. except industrial minerals, in a similar way to rank minerals as strategic investment targets. The result is equally unexpected. The following are stated to be the five top investment targets up to the year 2025: nickel, gold, crude oil, natural gas and zinc. These two examples are illustrative for the contents of the whole volume. Complicated and not easily understood number crunching is applied to detailed statistics of supply, demand, population trends, technology, political development and many other factors affecting minerals availability. The methodology of the analysis is in general not clearly spelled out and is not possible to evaluate. It is not clear for whom the collection of statistics is intended. The reader with a basic knowledge of the mineral industries will find very little data not available elsewhere. Readers that want to grasp the basics of mineral production and consumption will be at risk of getting confused. In addition questions about the systematics of the treatise comes to mind. As an example the selection of companies seems to be made randomly. Almost 40 companies are treated but giants such as Australian MIM, US Freeport or Brazilian CAEMI are not included. Included equally randomly are Samancor jointly controlled by Gencor and AngloAmerican Corporation of South Africa and Rustenburg Platinum in the JCI group of companies. The list does not include state controlled companies and hence important producers such as CVRD, Codelco and all the producers in the CIS are for some unknown reason not considered. However, the Outokumpu 1994
group controlled by the Finnish state is for some reason on the list. The basic thrust of the volume, to take a very long-term view on minerals availability is interesting. However, there are shortcomings, both in the statistical material and the methodology applied that seriously limit the usefulness of the World Index of Resources.
Magmc.s Ericsson Raw Materials Group Stockholm, Sweden
An Introduction to Mineral Economics Kaulir Kisor Chatterjee Wiley Eastern, New Delhi, 1993, 353pp RS85 The words ‘principles’ and ‘introduction’ evoke an anticipation of an exposition of principles that are of wide acceptance, validity and correctness. The subjects listed in the contents (21 chapters) also cause the same anticipation and hope. The author asserts that he concentrated on the underlying principles of forces that hold good forever and has provided data to illustrate them. Yet even after diligent reading, it is difficult to find those eternal principles that are of invariable validity. The author provides an original definition of economics and his own perceptions of what he considers economics. He states that economics is essentially management of want (Chapter I, page I ). He thinks in a sense mineral economics is a branch of applied economics. But he feels that mineral economists would not agree. He states that mineral economics can justly claim a status parallel to economics because minerals are indispensable for the well being of man, minerals are non-renewable, minerals need to be conserved for posterity, and minerals occur in a subterranean position. It is wondered whether these four aspects elevate mineral economics to the status parallel to that of economics. Economics is economics, physics is physics, whether you deal in applied or more theoretical issues. The author displays an inadequate appreciation of the fact that, after quoting Dana and Bateman, ore is an economic concept and
287
ways be related to changes in prices, preferences and cost functions. Recycling and reuse is significantly improved within the aluminium sector. However, it is interesting to observe that the various applications of secondary aluminium within automotive industries have recently been hampered while aluminium prices once again are increasing. Unfortunately, many recycling schemes have been stranded not because they do not contribute to a more sustainable materials economy, but because the additional financial outlays could not be justified not even on a very long-term scale. In some cases this outcome could be labelled market failure, but one should not omit policy failure as an equally important explanation. I find it very important to raise questions related to our material consumption, and particularly non-renewable natural resources. Alternative visions must be proposed. The visions, however, must be made applicable for influencing ongoing unsustainable practices. We need to develop perceptions and tools which can bring us beyond current practices. Thus, it surprises me that the authors present a paper without proposing how this secondary materials society will be achieved. The analysis of raw materials exporting developing countries is naive and superficial. If we should reduce our demand for their virgin resources, domestic industrial diversification must be promoted. However, this is not a new proposal and continuous attempts have been made since the 1960s. By focusing on revolutionary partnership and reducing international trade I see little hope for these countries, and very few realistic prescriptions of lasting progress in the more materialised and diversified world. What I am looking for are visions and actual proposals that accept technological changes within a dynamic politicaleconomic context. The authors focus on joint efforts, and I question whether downsizing necessarily will solve the more basic problems of unsustainable economic development. Economies of scale have a priori been defined as environmentally hazardous, a normative commitment which I very much question. I have found many examples of large economic entities which due to their financial solidity have
286
been more capable of taking the risk of challenging conventional consumption patterns and promoting recycling schemes which might be more applicable and relevant on a global scale than what certain non-profit organizations are currently doing without any references to budgetary restraints. lnnovatory practices are widespread, and even if these changes only are creating reformist partnerships, they have created significant competence and experience which subsequently can trigger more revolutionary changes of consumption patterns.
Audun Ruud Centre fbr Development and the Environment University cfOs10, Norway
The Industrial Minerals HandyBook: A Guide to Markets, Specifications and Prices Peter W Harben Metal Bulletin. New York (1994) 147pp Industrial Minerals Directory: A World Guide to Producers and Processors Joyce Grifiths (ed) Metal Bulletin, New York (1991) 542 pp A book covering the whole subject of industrial minerals is not particularly easy to write considering its diversity in terms of materials (which include both minerals and rocks) and applications. These two volumes published by Metal Bulletin, together, seem to have handled the subject quite well, complementing each other in terms of coverage and manner of presentation. Peter W Harben’s Industrial Minerals Hundybook comes in two parts. Part I attempts to provide the reader with a profile of each mineral (or more appropriately, mineral commodity since some are rock materials), which includes scientific, technical and economic information such as properties, uses, quality demand (specification), capacity, capacity utilization, market (trend), influence (the types of industries and other factors affecting its usage), major producing, exporting and importing countries, FOB prices (for various grades), HTS codes and competition
(possible substitutes). The list of mineral commodities, and the range of information on each, are not by any means exhaustive, but the coverage is nevertheless comprehensive for most users. The mineral commodities are arranged in alphabetical order which facilitates easy reference. Part II contains tabulated information on world industrial minerals production, distribution of production by region and relevant commercial information such as conversion factors, specifications, properties, prices, etc. Harben’s compilation contains a wealth of information which would be useful to those in the scientific and technical professions such as (exploration) geologists, mining engineers and mineral technologists as well the more commercially inclined such as mineral economists, market analysts, mineral traders, and producers and consumers of industrial minerals. Students and academicians will also find the book interesting and useful as it provides an insight into the extensiveness and diversity of application of industrial minerals and contains information not commonly found in standard text books. However, this publication is not without its shortcomings. Two major industrial mineral commodities, namely, ball clay and dimension stone, which are produced, consumed and traded in significant quantities worldwide, are noticeably missing. Certain parts of the section on ‘world industrial minerals production’ could be improved. For example, rare earth production could, in fact, be split into monazite, xenotime and bastnaesite, to portray rare earth production more accurately. Similarly, production of titanium minerals could have included figures for Ti-slag and leucoxene, two other significant sources of titanium. As the author had admitted, the information seems to have a bias towards the North American and to a lesser extent European scenario. If the book is to command a global appeal, its future editions will have to rectify this shortcoming by the inclusion of more comprehensive information from the South-east and East Asian as well as the Latin American regions which are areas of growth in the immediate future. In his enthusiasm to squeeze in as much information as possible, some of the illustrations and flow
Resources Policy Volume 20 Number 4 December
1994
Book reviews
charts have been rendered close to being illegible. However, all taken, as the author has aptly chosen the title - this is clearly a handy book to have, both for the novice as well as the experienced mineral hand. The Industrial Minerals Directoyv edited by Joyce Griffiths provides an excellent complement to Harben’s Handvhook. This is the second edition of the directory, the first of which was published in 1986. The directory contains information on industrial mineral producers worldwide and includes mineral processing companies in addition to those which own or operate mines or quarries. For each company, where available, information on contact addresses, corporate structure, mining and processing activities (location of mines and plants), products handled, principal sales agents and other relevant information are given. This second edition is essentially an update and incorporates the many changes in structure and ownership which have taken place since the last publication. The layout remains the same with an alphabetical arrangement of countries, each comprising an alphabetical company listing, followed by a buyers’ guide arranged by product. A new addition to this volume is the inclusion of a section listing European and North American associations with mineral connections. Jayne North (compiler) has done an excellent job of the compilation bearing in mind the enormity of the task. The information is comprehensive and well organized for easy reference. Consumers of industrial minerals will find this compilation extremely useful as it provides worldwide information on possible suppliers. Being generally high bulk low unit value materials, transport cost will be of economic importance and availability of suppliers close to the consuming ccntres is generally desirable. The directory would also be useful to the mineral economists, market analysts. mineral traders and producers (and potential producers) of industrial minerals who would be interested in forecasting the supply of and demand for the various industrial minerals.
La-v-Hock Teoh Geological Survey @‘Malay.ria Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia Resources Policy
Volume 20 Number 4 Decendw
World Index of Resources and Population David Hargreaves, Monica Eden-Green and Joan Dcvaney Dartmouth, 1994. 417pp What do the following six countries have in common: United Arab Emirates, Australia, Norway, ex USSR, UK and USA? The answer, quite surprisingly, is that these countries are considered by Hargreaves et al to have the best long-term investment potential for mineral production. The selection is made from a list containing 70 of the world’s most important mineral producing countries. The World Index goes on to analyse all minerals. except industrial minerals, in a similar way to rank minerals as strategic investment targets. The result is equally unexpected. The following are stated to be the five top investment targets up to the year 2025: nickel, gold, crude oil, natural gas and zinc. These two examples are illustrative for the contents of the whole volume. Complicated and not easily understood number crunching is applied to detailed statistics of supply, demand, population trends, technology, political development and many other factors affecting minerals availability. The methodology of the analysis is in general not clearly spelled out and is not possible to evaluate. It is not clear for whom the collection of statistics is intended. The reader with a basic knowledge of the mineral industries will find very little data not available elsewhere. Readers that want to grasp the basics of mineral production and consumption will be at risk of getting confused. In addition questions about the systematics of the treatise comes to mind. As an example the selection of companies seems to be made randomly. Almost 40 companies are treated but giants such as Australian MIM, US Freeport or Brazilian CAEMI are not included. Included equally randomly are Samancor jointly controlled by Gencor and AngloAmerican Corporation of South Africa and Rustenburg Platinum in the JCI group of companies. The list does not include state controlled companies and hence important producers such as CVRD, Codelco and all the producers in the CIS are for some unknown reason not considered. However, the Outokumpu 1994
group controlled by the Finnish state is for some reason on the list. The basic thrust of the volume, to take a very long-term view on minerals availability is interesting. However, there are shortcomings, both in the statistical material and the methodology applied that seriously limit the usefulness of the World Index of Resources.
Magmc.s Ericsson Raw Materials Group Stockholm, Sweden
An Introduction to Mineral Economics Kaulir Kisor Chatterjee Wiley Eastern, New Delhi, 1993, 353pp RS85 The words ‘principles’ and ‘introduction’ evoke an anticipation of an exposition of principles that are of wide acceptance, validity and correctness. The subjects listed in the contents (21 chapters) also cause the same anticipation and hope. The author asserts that he concentrated on the underlying principles of forces that hold good forever and has provided data to illustrate them. Yet even after diligent reading, it is difficult to find those eternal principles that are of invariable validity. The author provides an original definition of economics and his own perceptions of what he considers economics. He states that economics is essentially management of want (Chapter I, page I ). He thinks in a sense mineral economics is a branch of applied economics. But he feels that mineral economists would not agree. He states that mineral economics can justly claim a status parallel to economics because minerals are indispensable for the well being of man, minerals are non-renewable, minerals need to be conserved for posterity, and minerals occur in a subterranean position. It is wondered whether these four aspects elevate mineral economics to the status parallel to that of economics. Economics is economics, physics is physics, whether you deal in applied or more theoretical issues. The author displays an inadequate appreciation of the fact that, after quoting Dana and Bateman, ore is an economic concept and
287