The paper
What it says
"I argue that, with notable exceptions, economic geology education within earth science programs globally runs the risk of either focusing too narrowly on ore geology science or being a minor addendum within an earth science academic curriculum, if it is included at all."That's the big takeaway of this short piece from April's SEG newsletter. Arribas points out that there is a misunderstanding among the public about how many resources we use that must be mined, and how much of those resources are still left to mine. The past decades have seen large increases in the amount of resources we use as a society, yet the reported reserves and resources, the stuff that companies have a "reasonable prospect for economic extraction" hasn't changed much, on an annual basis. Another way of looking at this is the saying we had when I worked at Bingham, that the mine had twenty years of reserves, just it had for the past 50 years!
Most economic geology courses or programs don't teach much about how resources are related to society. It is true that the two semesters of ore deposits I taught were biased hugely towards genetic models that will help find new deposits. A lot of departments these days don't even cover the geology side of mineral deposits, let alone their societal impacts. The author believes that all geologists should have a basic background in economic geology and that industry professionals must get involved to make this happen. I agree.
Why it matters
Modern society uses a LOT of minerals and metals; if it can't be grown it has to be mined. I think a lot of people really don't realize this. This knowledge gap is, I think, big knock on effect of universities not providing a good education in economic geology. This article offers a place to start to address that gap. It is sort of preaching to the choir, but it raises good points. We use a lot of resources and more people should understand where they come from. That should start in the geosciences.Why I read it
Honestly, I was just reading through the SEG Newsletter and this article jumped out at me.I follow a lot of people on Twitter who go out of their way to do the whole scicom thing - you know, actually communicate science. I've always admired this, but I'm not a natural at it, so it takes a lot of time. This article is aimed to get geology/geoscience departments to do better at training informed students, but I also feel it a bit of a call to industry people like me to more actively communicate the importance of (responsible) mining in society. I'll try harder.
Odds and Ends
OK, so that goal of reading a couple of articles every month hasn't really happened, yet. It's not too late, though, right? Onward, speeding towards the end of the year!
