MINING GEOLOGY/Mineral Reserves 623 made, leading to mining In fact, most exploration efforts leave no long-term trace and make no discoveries Even when targets are identified, on further testing less than 1% prove to be of economic interest The mining industry as a whole, including exploration, has been criticized for not returning a satisfactory profit on money invested, but such analyses can only be sensibly done on a case-by-case basis Over the past decade, major changes have occurred in financial markets and in how businesses operate, with emphasis on short-term financial performance Because exploration cannot guarantee very quick returns, it lost favour with investors, with the result that in the late 1990s, exploration expenditure dropped drastically, and investment in mining developments were also sharply reduced in response to low commodity prices If this situation were to continue, there would eventually be a shortage of some commodities, which should cause prices to rise, making exploration and mining of those commodities attractive again The last few years of the twentieth century represented a period of dramatic change for the mining and exploration industry These changes are still being played out, but a new industry structure and way of operating have to be found Throughout the world, all people seek a better life, and to fulfil that desire requires more and better houses, vehicles, roads, and everyday things All those things have to be made from some material commodity, and most commodities can be obtained only by mining Mining will ultimately die without exploration, so, as long as populations continue to increase and people strive for a better standard of living, requiring the use of mineral commodities, the future of mineral exploration is assured See Also Analytical Methods: Geochemical Analysis (Including XRay) Economic Geology Geochemical Exploration Geological Maps and Their Interpretation Minerals: Definition and Classification Mining Geology: Exploration Boreholes; Hydrothermal Ores; Magmatic Ores Quarrying Further Reading Boyle RW (ed.) (1971) Geochemical Exploration, CIMM Special Volume 11 Quebec: Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Dobrin MB and Savit CH (1988) Introduction to Geophys ical Prospecting, 4th edn New York: McGraw Hill Evans AM (1995) Introduction to Mineral Exploration London: Blackwell Science Ltd Harben PW and Kuzvart M (1997) Industrial Minerals Global Geology Surrey, UK: Industrial Minerals Infor mation Ltd Levinson AA (1980) Introduction to Exploration Geochemistry, 2nd edn Wilmette, Illinois: Applied Publishing Peters WC (1987) Exploration and Mining Geology, 2nd edn New York: John Wiley & Sons Rose AE, Hawkes HE, and Webb JS (1979) Geochemistry in Mineral Exploration, 2nd edn New York: Harper and Row Sillitoe RH (1995) Exploration and Discovery of Base and Precious Metal Deposits in the Circum Pacific Region during the Last 25 Years, Resource Geology Special Issue 19 Tokyo: The Society of Resource Geology Sillitoe RH (2000) Exploration and Discovery of Base and Precious Metal Deposits in the Circum Pacific Region A Late 1990s Update, Resource Geology Special Issue 21 Tokyo: The Society of Resource Geology Telford EM, Geldart LP, Sheriff RE, and Keys DD (1976) Applied Geophysics Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Van Blaricom R (1992) Practical Geophysics II for the Exploration Geologist Spokane: Northwest Mining Association Vanecek M (ed.) (1994) Mineral Deposits of the World; Ores, Industrial Minerals, and Rocks, Developments in Economic Geology vol 28 Amsterdam: Elsevier Mineral Reserves M Vaneˇ cˇ ek, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic ß 2005, Elsevier Ltd All Rights Reserved Introduction Mineral reserves and mineral resources are terms that cannot be separated from each other Their definitions are derived from the grade of geological certainty of the basic information about the mineral accumulation and from expected profitability of extracting and marketing the mineral commodity In all main classifications (i.e., the United Nations, the USA, and the Russian classifications) the definitions of mineral resources and mineral reserves are slightly different, but in all cases the reserves form only a better known part of the resources Procedures for mineral reserves calculation can be divided into the scalar-geometrical methods and into geostatistical methods For the most part, in mineral statistics,