Minerals In The World Economy - Introduction

This study is intended to serve three roles. First, it is an extension of the previous works under the same title that have been the overview and summary chapter of the international volume of Minerals Yearbook since the inception of that volume. Following the traditional format of past chapters, the basic statistical presentations herein deal chiefly with 1989, and in some instances with 1988, the latter only because more recent, comprehensive global statistics for 1989 are simply not yet available owing to delayed data collection and processing in some countries and continued governmental suppression of data in others. The second role of this study is to provide an update to the coverage of events impacting on the world's mineral industry that have occurred between the end of 1989 and the preparation of this study. Inclusion of this update is almost essential because of the potential effect of some of these events on global mineral industry activities.