File:Simplified world active mining map.png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Simplified_world_mining_map_1.png

Description English: A schematic showing the locations of certain ores in the world. A specific focus has been put on metals, and construction materials. Natural resources that are used for energy (fossil oil, gas ...) can be found on another map. Aldough metals can still be won from regular mining, most metals, ... can now be much more economically won from landfills. This, as landfills require much less labour (less soil needs to be dug off and sieved). In addition, the use of a cradle-to-cradle material recovery can also save allot of labour and is therefore also more economically attractive. For some materials however, regular mining will still need to continue. In this case, it is best to choose ore sites that are located in biodiversity-poor regions (eg mountainous regions, regions outside of the tropical-subtropical zone). As the map is simplified, we can herefore study the maps from the USGS at http://mrdata.usgs.gov/ ; the database is also usable with Google Earth, see http://www.gelib.com/world-mineral-resources.htm Finally note that on the map, the markers may vary in size, however this doesn't relate to the size of the mineral/materials stores, this is simply an incorrection due to the resizing. The map was made using data from the book "Future Energy and Resources" by Robin Kerrod and "Working with the oceans" by Lawrence Williams and Alan Collinson Date 18 January 2009 Source Own work Author KVDP