查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdThis special issue aims to create a space for rethinking current approaches to “complex orebodies”. Our introductory paper surveys recent developments in the field and identifies a range of challenges that are affecting our collective ability to engage the complex systems associated with future global metal supply. Interdisciplinary mining research remains in its infancy, with single-discipline, technical studies continuing to dominate. Social and environmental factors that lie “beyond the fence” are too often over-simplified and overlooked in resource characterisation and extractive industries. In this special issue, we profile developments in the field and engage the challenges of working in inter-disciplinary, boundary-spanning research in mining. Our paper introduces the special issue, and invites contributing authors to critically engage the conditions and prospects that lie ahead.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdA sustained and guaranteed supply of rare earth (RE) minerals is imperative to a country's national security to sustain its manufacturing, defence, and high-tech industry sectors. Although the term is referring to “rare”, it does not mean that they are not abundant, but rather the difficulties to extract these minerals and the highly mixed nature of the deposits make them rare. RE minerals' production has been closely monopolised by Chinese mining companies which have create concerns on their supply risk and resilience in the future. This study critically reviewed 1) the existing approaches and theories used to evaluate the RE supply security and 2) the pathways to achieve RE supply security and their existing drivers and barriers to implementation. Literature and reports were collected from Web of Science, Scopus, and Google search which resulted in 323 articles included in the final database and 67 articles for the critical analysis. Our findings indicate the need to integrate existing approaches and theories such as resilience, material criticality, and risk theory to overcome their individual limitations. This study also suggested four pathway categories that can improve RE supply security including 1) circular economy strategies, 2) supply chain agility, 3) building domestic supplies, and 4) exploring beyond terrestrial mining. A preliminary causal loop diagram (CLD) was developed based on the factors identified during the review to depict the complexity and dynamics of the different system elements affecting the RE supply security.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdNowe Brusno town is known from its unique geology and history closely connected to the use of local limestones. Miocene limestones (Upper Baden) have been exploited there since the 15th century, used for grain processing, specifically for the construction of millstones and querns. The popularity of the material is evidenced by products made of this limestone in neighbouring towns such as Zamo??, Józefów, or even Lviv, which is located more than 100 km away. The preserved products can most often be found in the form of tomb crosses and wayside shrines. Research on the thermal properties of rocks allows a detailed analysis of the behaviour of these materials at different temperatures and their insulating properties, which are also one of the important factors in the light of the progressing climate change. These features are necessary for considering and using geothermal energy, designing buildings based on heat exchange between construction and the ground, and determining the possibility of heat exchange in the case of underground transmission infrastructure. Understanding the thermal properties of rock materials currently plays an important role in road construction and protection of the ground against frost and temperature fluctuations. The selection of materials with appropriate insulating properties allows to reduce the risk of frost heave and other degradation processes of the Surface of communication routes. Moreover, in the light of sustainable development, it allows maximum use of quarry excavated rocks. Large-sized blocks of stone of detrital limestone from the Nowe Brusno quarry are used in local architecture as structural and decorative elements, while irregular and smaller fragments are used as aggregate and crushed stone in road construction. This paper presents measurements results of thermal conductivity of detrital limestones determined rock samples in air-dry (natural) state at approx. 25°C (61 measurements); fully hydrated at approx. 5°C (44 measurements) and frozen state (approx. -8°C) (28 measurements). Additionally, for complete information on the rock material, tests of geomechanical (physical and mechanical) properties, such as volumetric density, porosity, and uniaxial compression strength were carried out. The obtained thermal parameters of the analysed rocks will feed the "Engineering and Geological Database - Physical and mechanical properties of soils and rocks (BDGI WFM)".
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdThis study investigates the impact of the natural resources abundance on financial development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the period of 1970–2017. We also consider economic growth, education, and capital formation in the finance demand function model. The Zivot and Andrews (2002) and Narayan and Popp (2013) unit root tests that take into account one and two structural breaks confirm that the independent variables are integrated of mixed orders. The Bayer and Hanck (2013) combined cointegration methodology and the autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing (Pesaran et al., 2001) verify the existence of the long-run association between natural resource abundance and financial development. Our findings show that natural resource abundance has a detrimental effect on financial development in the long run which can be mitigated by enhanced human capital. These findings have important policy implications which are discussed in the conclusion section of this article.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022Natural resources have played a role of backbone in the economy of Algeria. It has become the sixth biggest nation to export its natural resources, i.e., natural gas. Hence, revealing the substantial impact of natural resources on environmental degradation in Algeria becomes imperative. This investigation analyzed the influence of natural resources rents, economic growth, and economic globalization on the ecological footprints in Algeria. This investigation employed the ARDL model and found that income generated from natural resources imperiously improved environmental excellence in Algeria. However, economic globalization nominated positive affiliation with environmental degradation. Hence, these findings revealed the importance of putting tariffs on the import of bad goods and services. Moreover, the study evaluated the N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) theory. The verdicts confirmed the subsistence of an N-shaped relationship amid economic growth and ecological footprints in Algeria. In addition, the causality test revealed that economic growth and its square have a bidirectional causality effect with environmental degradation. Indeed, natural resources exposed unidirectional causality moving from natural resources to environmental degradation. However, causality findings for economic globalization were insignificant. The study revealed the important policies to achieve sustainable development without effacing environmental sustainability in Algeria.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022The EU decarbonization policy was and is the most serious challenge for those countries where coal was used in the energy industry to quite a large extent. The transformation of energy mixes is a time consuming and capital intensive task. Therefore, the aim of this article is to identify the directions of transformation of the energy mixes of selected European Union countries (those with an above average share of hard coal in meeting energy needs) conducive to reducing carbon dioxide and making the adaptation to EU climate requirements possible. Multidimensional analysis of the emissivity and composition of energy mixes used in the research allowed to distinguish 4 transformation paths. The most effective of them – in the context of achieving environmental goals – proved to be a quick and consistent abolition of coal and its replacement with renewable and nuclear energy and hydroelectricity. The lack or low level of reduction of the share of coal in the mix brought highly unsatisfactory effects in terms of emission reduction (Poland, Bulgaria, Turkey). The conclusions fill the research gap in the area of: (1) long term analysis of the relationships between decisions concerning shaping the energy mix and their climate effects, and (2) identification of effective pathways for reducing carbon dioxide in economies where hard coal was the key raw material.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdRare earth elements (REE) are crucial in supporting multiple industries with new technologies. Thus the U.S.’ demand for rare earth oxide (REO) is on the rise. Yet, most of the REO supply comes from China, which exposes the U.S. to supply risks similar to that observed by the export quota imposed by China in 2010–2011. This paper uses supply and demand models to evaluate the effects of the U.S. government's proposed strategies to reduce supply risks associated with potential export restrictions from China. We show that there are multiple policies available to mitigate the impact of China's dominance in the market by attenuating the price increases and supply shortfalls, with the size of the changes depending on the price elasticity of demand and supply for REOs. In addition, there are varying degrees of welfare gains from each proposal. Specifically, reducing domestic demand for newly-extracted REEs through substitution (such as recycling or finding alternatives to REEs in production) provides the largest welfare gains. The next best welfare-improving proposal is discovering new domestic supplies of REOs, followed by plans to gain access to foreign REO sources.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022This paper aims to validate the Lassonde Curve which is a widely discussed hypothesis within the mining and finance industries directly linking the life cycle of a resource company to it's share price and subsequent company value. The exploration, discovery, feasibility, financing, construction and production activities that occur in sequence are known to drive company share price, however there is limited research or academic literature on the topic. This paper provides the results of case study investigations using three ASX listed gold companies to confirm that share price varies based on the activity being conducted. The results show that the company defining activities outlined by Lassonde influence share price, however the activities are not required to occur in series or in set time frames. Activity timeframes can be compressed, elongated or bypassed resulting in a sequence of events that is unique to each company. It can be concluded that multiple pathways exist for share price value once the production phase commences, as production is either successful and cash flow steadily increases or production problems drive the share price lower. The findings illustrate that the discovery and production phase of the activity cycle drive share prices higher, while exploration, post feasibility and pre finance periods produce stages of share price decline or stability. In summary, Lassonde's hypothesis is valid and visible for the three ASX listed gold companies analysed, although activities can be combined or bypassed to decrease the time of the overall cycle.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdWe investigate the influence of pandemic and trade policy uncertainty on the dynamics of oil price returns over the two last decades, using a Mixed-Frequency Vector Autoregressive (MF-VAR) model. We find that pandemic uncertainty and, more importantly, trade policy uncertainty significantly explain EU Brent and WTI oil price returns. Additionally, pandemic and trade policy uncertainty shocks are linked with lower (higher) oil price returns in the short-term (medium-term). Finally, while our mixed-frequency approach captures the persistent response of oil price returns to the uncertainty shocks, the single common-frequency (i.e., quarterly) framework only uncovers a muted reaction.
查看更多>>摘要：? 2022 Elsevier LtdDespite rapidly-expanding academic and policy interest in the links between natural resource wealth and development failures – commonly referred to as the ‘resource curse’ – little attention has been devoted to the psychology behind the phenomenon. Rent-seeking and excessive reliance on mineral revenues can be attributed largely to social psychology. Mineral booms (whether due to the discovery of mineral reserves or to the drastic rise in commodity prices) start as positive income shocks that can subsequently evolve into influential and expectation-changing public and media narratives; these lead consecutively to unrealistic demands that favor immediate consumption of accrued mineral revenues and to the postponement of productive investment. To our knowledge, this paper is the first empirical analysis that tests hypotheses regarding the psychological underpinnings of resource mismanagement in mineral-rich states. Our study relies on an extensive personal survey (of 1977 respondents) carried out in Almaty, Kazakhstan, between May and August 2018. We find empirical support for a positive link between exposure to news and inflated expectations regarding mineral availability, as well as evidence that the latter can generate preferences for excessive consumption, and hence, rent-seeking.
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