National Needs - Hard Mineral Dependencies

While there is no immediate worldwide shortage of hard minerals, the consumption of natural resources is constantly increasing, and there are ominous predictions of shortages to come. Means of meeting rapidly increasing demands are being implemented. These include such methods as exploration and discovery of new ore bodies, development of new mines, increasing production at existing mines, working or reopening known deposits of lower grade ore and tailings, recycling old materials, and developing more efficient and less wasteful processes to convert ores and metals into useful products. The United States, although itself mineral-rich, depends in large measure on imports for many key minerals and basic materials derived therefrom. According to the Department of the Interior, the U. S. depends upon imports for more than half of its supply of six of the basic thirteen raw materials required by any industrialized society - aluminum, chromium, manganese, nickel, tin, and zinc. By 1985 the country will also depend upon imports for more than half of its iron and tungsten, and by the year 2000 imports will have to supply more than half of the copper, potassium, and sulfur that it requires.