The course begins by appreciating the fact that no country has the capacity to produce all the mineral resources required for use in the modern society. As such, international trade plays a critical role in ensuring the exchange of these raw materials by creating a global network that consists of production, export, import, and utilization. In this regard, the United States and the European Union (EU) have made critical efforts in gathering information and the development of tools important in securing the national and global supply of mineral resources. It further focuses on describing the various vulnerabilities in the area of supply of the minerals.
The course also focuses on the how critical minerals are utilized as raw materials in the production of commodities such as jewelry that boost the economies of these countries. Minerals such as gold and diamond have a huge role with regards to bolstering the economic viability of many countries. Another focus of the course is on describing the trends in mineral commodity production and how scarcity is likely to affect global trade and economy. Critical to note is that most of these minerals are non-renewable and their overexploitation could set a center stage for depletion and a shortage of raw materials for many production industries.
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Understanding the international trade of mineral also requires the knowledge of the demand and supply which dictates how the exchange of these valuable raw materials occurs. Industrialized nations such as the United States, Germany, and China have a high demand for the minerals owing to their massive industrialized-based production. The course, however, discusses some of the measures that the world is taking to ensure that minerals are managed in the most appropriate way that would enable sustainability. With the formation of programs such as The Raw materials Initiative and Horizon of 2020 and the 2017 Critical Raw Materials Assessment, more emphasis has been put on the use of minerals in a bid to prevent depletion.
Reference
Tracking the Global Supply of Critical Materials Summary. (2018). Retrieved from: https://goli.americangeosciences.org/courses/course-v1:AGI+AGI018+2018/info
