Geological Survey of Norway, Leiv Eirikssons vei 39, 7040 Trondheim, Norway.
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Industrial Ecology Programme, Høgskoleringen 5, NO-7034 Trondheim, Norway.
Environ Sci Technol. 2024 Jan 16;58(2):971-990. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.3c03088. Epub 2024 Jan 2.
Global resource extraction raises concerns about environmental pressures and the security of mineral supply. Strategies to address these concerns depend on robust information on natural resource endowments, and on suitable methods to monitor and model their changes over time. However, current mineral resources and reserves reporting and accounting workflows are poorly suited for addressing mineral depletion or answering questions about the long-term sustainable supply. Our integrative review finds that the lack of a robust theoretical concept and framework for mass-balance (MB)-consistent geological stock accounting hinders systematic industry-government data integration, resource governance, and strategy development. We evaluate the existing literature on geological stock accounting, identify shortcomings of current monitoring of mine production, and outline a conceptual framework for MB-consistent system integration based on material flow analysis (MFA). Our synthesis shows that recent developments in Earth observation, geoinformation management, and sustainability reporting act as catalysts that make MB-consistent geological stock accounting increasingly feasible. We propose first steps for its implementation and anticipate that our perspective as "resource realists" will facilitate the integration of geological and anthropogenic material systems, help secure future mineral supply, and support the global sustainability transition.
全球资源开采引发了人们对环境压力和矿产供应安全的担忧。应对这些担忧的策略取决于对自然资源禀赋的可靠信息，以及对其随时间变化进行监测和建模的合适方法。然而，目前的矿产资源和储量报告和核算工作流程不太适合解决矿产枯竭问题，也无法回答有关长期可持续供应的问题。我们的综合审查发现，缺乏稳健的理论概念和框架来进行质量平衡（MB）一致的地质存量核算，这阻碍了系统的行业-政府数据集成、资源治理和战略制定。我们评估了地质存量核算的现有文献，确定了当前矿山生产监测的不足之处，并根据物质流分析（MFA）概述了一个用于 MB 一致系统集成的概念框架。我们的综合研究表明，地球观测、地理信息管理和可持续性报告方面的最新发展起到了促进作用，使得 MB 一致的地质存量核算变得越来越可行。我们提出了实施的初步步骤，并预计我们作为“资源现实主义者”的观点将有助于整合地质和人为物质系统，确保未来的矿产供应安全，并支持全球可持续性转型。
