توسعه پایدار: صنعت معدن استطاعت آن را دارد؟

Adopting the values of sustainable development implies an increase in the mining industry’s environmental and social costs. For an industry already offering poor returns on capital this is potentially a problem. An examination of the historical record, however, reveals that past increases in environmental and social costs have been more than offset by developments in industry productivity. The emergence of information and communication technologies seems likely to extend this trend into the future. The particular challenges being faced by mining in the US appear to be less to do with rising environmental costs than with competition from countries which have recently opened up to foreign mining investment and to a strong dollar. It seems likely that industry’s adoption of more sustainable practices will require, and could even promote, improved returns to capital in mining.

The proposition to be explored in this paper is that the profitability of the mining industry — already poor — is about to get worse as a result of rising cost pressures associated with the social and environmental demands of sustainable development. A secondary objective is to ask whether US miners are set to suffer disproportionately in this process.