Description
"Informed decisions concerning undiscovered mineral resources cannot be made without an understanding of the technological, environmental, or economic difficulties that might be encountered. Quantitative Mineral Resource Assessments: An Integrated Approach offers a modern quantitative assessment that explicates the diverse factors that affect mineral-related decisions, so that potential consequences can be more easily assessed, uncertainty and risk reduced, and courses of action determined without bias. The integrated approach focuses on three assessment parts and the models that support them and is designed so that consequences of alternative courses of action can be examined with respect to land use, exploration, or mineral-resource development. Drawing upon newly developed deposit density models, frequency distributions, and previously unpublished experiments, the book provides an essential and practical approach for making critical decisions." "Written for governmental and industrial policy makers, managers of exploration, planners of regional development, and similar decision makers, the book brings together for the first time the widely scattered literature on the subject. It also captures the necessary ingredients of the diverse disciplines of economic geology, statistics, mineral economics, and geology that are an integral part of quantitative mineral resource assessments. With this wealth of information, the book will serve not only as a guide for professionals but also as a comprehensive reference for those studying or researching mineral resources."--BOOK JACKET.
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Policy makers, mineral exploration experts, and regional planners decide how public lands, which may contain undiscovered resources, should be used or whether to invest in exploration for minerals on a regular basis. Decisions are also made concerning mineral resource adequacy, national policy, and regional development. This book makes explicit the factors that can affect a mineral-related decision so that decision-makers can clearly see the possible consequences of their decisions. Based on work done at the US Geological Survey, the authors address the question of the kinds of issues decision-makers are trying to resolve and what forms of information would aid in resolving these issues. The goal of the process discussed is to offer unbiased quantitative assessments in a format needed in decision-support systems so that consequences of alternative courses of action can be examined with respect to land use or mineral-resource development. An integrated approach focuses on three assessment parts and the models that support them. Although the concepts presented are straightforward and understandable, in assessments, carefully listening to the experts in other disciplines leads to better products. Navigating through and making sense of QRA requires not just learning rules and equations, but life experiences and common sense. The judgment required to understand which tools to apply are best learned by example and experience. This will be useful to governmental orindustrial policy makers, managers of explorations, planners of regional development, and similar decision-makers.
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