Production (a3ba292c-05b3-418e-9bc4-32d661650eda)

The estimated value of world crude mineral production in 1990 exceeded $1,501.5 billion in terms of current (1990) dollars, or almost $1,160 billion in terms of constant 1983 dollars. This latter figure was 0.3% below the 1989 level and about 3.9% below the record high to date of $1,207.1 billion 1983 dollars set in 1980. Table 1 provides the latest available revised time series of the estimated value of world crude mineral production both in terms of 1983 constant dollars and in terms of current dollars. It also provides one of the two statistical bases for this estimation, this being the data on the value of production of a group of key commodities that was compiled for and published in the authoritative French language mineral industry periodical, Annales des Mines, for selected years up to 1983.1 It should be stressed that the values just discussed and those presented in the tabulation are for crude minerals only, and by no means reflect adequately the role of the entire mineral industry in the world economy. These figures represent only the value of mineral materials as they are mined or otherwise extracted from the earth. They do not reflect the value added to these materials through downstream processing within the facilities commonly accepted as mineral industry plants. That is, value added through beneficiation of ores, smelting, refining, and similar processing is not included in these figures. Comprehensive world data on the value added by such processing are not available; however, a conservative estimate of the total value of pro-cessed output from mineral industry plants derived wholly from primary (newly mined) materials would be on the order of about $2,780 billion constant 1983 dollars or $3,600 billion in terms of 1990 dollars.