438 ECONOMIC GEOLOGY Table Annual world production levels of selected metals and industrial minerals 1982 1983 2000 2001 Main producing countries Tonnes per annum (millions) Coal Asbestos Bauxite Chromite Copper Diatomite Fluorspar Iron ore Kaolin Lead Manganese ore Phosphates Potash Talc Zinc 4000 4.1 78 8.2 4500 2.0 139 13 8.0 1.9 4.4 750 (21) 3.5 24 13.6 1.7 4.2 1150 23 3.0 22 130 25 7.4 6.5 130 27 8.4 9.0 China Russia Australia South Africa Chile USA China China USA Australia China USA Canada China China USA Canada Guinea Kazakhstan USA China Mexico Brazil UK China South Africa China Belarus USA Australia Tonnes per annum (thousands) Antimony Gold ? 1.4 123 2.5 Mercury Platinum group metals Silver Tin Uranium Vermiculite 6.0 0.3 1.8 0.5 12 205 50 540 19 245 34 376 China South Africa Kyrgyzstan South Africa Mexico China Canada South Africa Guatamala USA Spain Russia Peru Indonesia Australia USA Data compiled from World Mineral Statistics (2003) by permission of British Geological Survey ß NERC All rights reserved IPR/46 28cw than the tonnages of rock mined to produce them The relative value of metallic mineral and industrial mineral production varies considerably from one country to another For instance, for the mean of the years 2001 and 2002, industrial minerals accounted for 78% of the total value of non-fuel minerals in the USA whereas in neighbouring Canada the metallic minerals accounted for 57% of the non-fuel group (Compiled from various sources) World Distribution of Economic Mineral Deposits Like all other geological bodies, mineral resources are unevenly distributed in the Earth’s crust Many nations owe a major part of their wealth to discovery Figure The importance of industrial minerals in the modern world is not always appreciated The relative values of the four commodity groups is a better measure than tonnages, because the amount of rock mined to produce metals and precious metals from their ores is at least an order of magnitude higher Compiled from data quoted in Evans (1995), after Noetstaller and development of economic mineral deposits, while others may be either very poorly endowed by nature, or ignorant of their undiscovered mineral resources The people of Nauru are richly blessed because their small Pacific island homeland contains 40 million tonnes of high grade phosphate rock In developed countries even with a large mining industry, the lack of domestic sources of certain vital commodities leads to the concept of ‘strategic minerals’ and defensive stockpiling against national emergencies Before entry into World War II the USA included Cr, Mn and Sn in a list of 14 strategic commodities Statistics of world mineral production illustrate the imbalances that cause geopolitical concern about national vulnerability to imported supplies (Figure 6), or to damaging price changes in key commodities For example South Africa, a country about twice the size of France, dominates Pt production, supplies almost half the worlds Cr and major amounts of Au, Mn and V, but has inadequate domestic resources of Mo and Al, oil and gas, potash, sulphur and kaolin China, a large country with a rapidly expanding economy, dominates world production of the rare earth elements (REE), produces over 80% of world Sb, over one-third of world V, Sn and W, and is a key nation in world minerals trade The observed major world patterns of distribution of economic mineral deposits become less arbitrary and more understandable when viewed in the light of metallogenic and geological maps Relationships appear between mineral resources and the geological environments and rock systems in which they occur For instance, oilfields and coalfields are associated with large sedimentary basins of upper Phanerozoic age, and one would not search hopefully for these