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This study pinpoints three current factors that could be momentous in a possible transition to marine mining, namely reserve-dependent capital efficiency (accessibility and grade-dependent output per unit capital), cross-sector competition (competition between two separate mining sectors), and asymmetric mineral security considerations (e.g., the resource owner(s) and government(s) tied to a sector desires production for profit and security reasons). Moreover, four conceptual optimization problems are explored to specify the potential roles of said factors in a possible transition. The first problem considers a principal agent, who make decisions on behalf of resource owner(s), government(s) and producer(s), and invests and extracts to maximize the net present value of extraction from onshore and offshore reserves while facing reserve-independent capital efficiency. The second problem considers the same as the first, except here, the principal meets reserve-dependent capital efficiency. The third problem considers two principals, each representing resource owner(s), government(s), and producer(s) tied to a sector, who invest and extract to maximize the net present value of extraction from the respective reserves subject to the decisions of the other principal. Finally, the last problem considers a duopoly setting in which the marine principal values both financial gain and mineral security. The results illustrate that reserve-dependent capital efficiency, cross-sector competition, and mineral security considerations can, in different ways, drive a possible transition to marine mining. Possible counter effective factors are highlighted and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given its tremendous natural resources, on the one hand, and its poor economic performance, on the other hand, the role of mining resources in the Guinean economy is often seen as a paradox. Guinea is one of the world's major bauxite producers for several decades. Based on this fact, this study aims to investigate the relationship between bauxite mining and economic growth in Guinea. We address this issue using both autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) models on annual data from Guinea over the period 1986–2020. Our results reveal that bauxite production has a positive impact on economic performance in Guinea. More precisely, the results indicate that, overall, bauxite production has a positive impact on both GDP and GDP per capita both in the short and long run. However, overall, this impact is statistically significant only in the short run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is commonly presumed that economies specializing in mining and oil production have high national income inequality. The research testing this proposition is equivocal, no doubt because of small sample sizes and missing inequality data for the majority of mining and oil economies. This paper makes use of a large sample of income inequality data that is comprehensive in its coverage of mining and oil economies. Mine production is found to cause higher national income inequality on a gross, pre-tax basis and a net, post-tax and post-redistribution basis. Botswana is prime example of a mining economy having both high gross and net income inequality. Oil production, on the other hand, does not cause higher gross or net income inequality. If anything, oil is associated with reduced gross and net income inequality. The mechanism for this difference from mining is not clear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks to shed some light on a fluctuating commodity price and gold production. In this regard, a structural vector autoregression (VAR) was applied to observe the sensitivity of the gold price and future pricing due to changes in macroeconomic variables, and also to review changes in macroeconomic variables due to changes in the gold (commodity) price. The variables used for decomposition were the gold price, the oil price, the real effective exchange rate of the United States (US), the US Federal funds rate, and the total combined gross domestic product (GDP) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Impulse response functions, with shocks to each system, was investigated, and the forecast error variance decomposition was examined. The main results over a period of 10 years show that a shock to OECD GDP caused the gold price to increase, thus showing a positive correlation between economic output and the gold price. A shock to the oil price caused the gold price to spike over the short term, then move sideways over the long term. A shock to the US Federal funds rate caused the gold price to spike over the short term, then decrease slightly over the medium and long terms; while a shock to the real effective exchange rate of the US caused the gold price to be relatively flat and move sideways. The results show that the relationship between gold and other relevant factors are not just a simple monetary relationship as many previously assumed. The relationship between gold and oil is still dynamic, whereas exchange rate shocks might not be as significant as previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some mineral resources are classifiable as reserves. Extensive seminal research on reserves by Tilton has identified three factors that influence whether resources are economically feasible for extraction and thus qualify as reserves. The author argues that policy, regulatory, and social factors, not or only peripherally related to economic feasibility, can also determine whether a resource qualifies as a mineral reserve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For several decades, economists have endeavored to determine whether a sudden surge in mineral and energy extraction activity poses an albatross or boon to an economy. The “Dutch disease” version of the resource curse originates in a traditional model postulating that extensive mineral and energy production induces inter-sectoral adjustments among traded and non-traded industries and that these adjustments tend to crowd out traditional export industries such as manufacturing. This can be acutely detrimental to the long-run growth of an economy when the traditional industries produce positive learning by doing externalities. This chain of events is so frequently cited as being evident in resource-based economies that it has become stylized wisdom. This paper reviews whether modern theoretical models and empirical evidence actually support the Dutch disease. Overall, we find that the Dutch disease is by no means theoretically predicted or empirically evident within resource-based economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mining involves the discovery, extraction, and processing of non-renewable resources. The potential of mining revenues to contribute to national economic development is well known, but the allocation of mineral wealth and the concern of increasing resource scarcity have become issues of debate in the mining industry. The purpose of this study is to introduce the binomial decision tree analysis, which is a new approach to mining investment decisions. The examples used examine the impact by a policy change. Using three mining projects in the Asia-Pacific, in Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, findings about options for the investor suggest it is sometimes better to wait for a more suitable time to invest. Using such knowledge provides the potential to change the investment climate in mining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In analysing the relatively recent economic decline of the iconic remote Australian mining town, Broken Hill, this paper seeks to derive lessons for the equally iconic gold and nickel mining city of Kalgoorlie Boulder. It also makes indicative predictions about the economic status of Kalgoorlie in 2050. Mining around Broken Hill, which has contracted dramatically since 1980, has been associated with a major decrease of population and housing, an aging population and income levels significantly below the national average. Attempts to diversify the local economy into tourism have had only limited success in replacing the impacts of mining. With the closure of the Super Pit after 2020, Kalgoorlie faces a similar period of decline during the coming decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abandoned Picher mining district in northeastern Oklahoma, part of the Tri-State mining district, was the largest source of sulfide ores of lead and zinc in the U.S.A. in the early twentieth century. After abandonment in the 1960s, numerous environmental problems caused by the abandoned mines and large tailings piles affected the district and surrounding areas with contamination of water, soils, vegetation, wildlife, and humans with lead and other metals. Current (2011) cleanup efforts in the district include separation of coarse and fine tailings particles, sales of the coarse particles (which consist mostly of dolomite and chert) for use as aggregate in asphalt, and burial of metals-rich fine tailings below ground to reduce exposure to and transport of toxic metals. Analysis in this paper indicates that reprocessing these tailings to extract remaining aluminum, titanium, lead, and zinc may be feasible. The value of lead and zinc in the tailings of this abandoned mining district probably are not sufficient to justify recovery of metals from the tailings at current market prices, but potential recovery of aluminum and titanium from these tailings may provide sufficient returns to justify the costs associated with reprocessing the fine tailings remaining in this district. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green growth is an environmental policy strategy that aims at an absolute decoupling between economic growth and resource consumption. As far as the applied policy measures focus on direct enhancements of economy-wide resource efficiency levels, their overall achievements might however be weakened by their induced rebound effects. This paper seeks to investigate the nature and significance of such trade-off interrelationships with regards to material efficiency improvements within the German economy. To this, we present the outcomes of individual policy simulations by means of the PANTA RHEI model. Taxes, information, and regulation activities are considered as policy instruments. Our overall empirical findings cannot falsify the green growth paradigm as the observed magnitude of economy-wide rebound effects appears unable to inhibit future absolute decoupling trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]