The race for resources. Continuing struggles over minerals and fuels / Борьба за ресурсы. Продолжающаяся борьба за полезные ископаемые и топливо

Not long ago Business Week, in a feature story entitled “Now the Squeeze on Metals,” warned ominously: America's industrial might—already threatened by the deepening energy mess—is in for another resource crunch. . . . All signs point to longer-range problems in U.S. mineral supply that will not be solved by cyclic swings in the economy. If not solved, those problems could make U.S. business less competitive, lower America’s standard of living, and endanger the national security.

Most ominous is the growing U.S. dependence on foreign supplies. ... By the mid-1980s, experts warn, the U.S. will be dangerously dependent on foreign sources for a significant portion of its total metals requirements. All this amounts to a strategic threat every bit as damaging as the energy squeeze.

For many generations fuels and non-fuel minerals have been a key factor in industrialization, war, and the international distribution of economic and military power. In the thirty years since the end of World War II, however, their significance has taken a quantum leap as their use and cost have grown more rapidly than the world economy. The purpose of this chapter is to provide empirical background and a guide to the political economy framework I use in the remainder of the book for analyzing specific minerals, companies, and problem areas. It egins with a brief analysis of the present scope of the international mineral business as compared to the earlier period gainst this background, I then briefly outline the major forces ln today s international mineral business: the mineral companies, <...>