Natural Resource Issues - Mineral Ores 自然资源问题--矿石Ores are rocks that contain sufficiently high concentrations of minerals, including metals, which can be economically extracted for use in industrial processes. Like fossil fuels, there is a mismatch between global production and consumption of Mineral ores.
矿石是含有足够高浓度的矿物（包括金属）的岩石，可以经济地提取这些矿物用于工业生产。与化石燃料一样，全球矿石的生产和消费之间存在着不匹配。
Mineral ores are found around the world, with patterns varying from ore to ore. Some HICs have longer histories of producing mineral ores, meaning their domestic supplies of mineral ores are heavily depleted and the reserves that are left are less economic to extract, such as copper and tin from Cornwall. There are some HICs with abundant mineral ore reserves, such as Canada and Australia, which have many decades of exploitable reserves remaining. The current sourcing trend is a shift in mineral ore production coming increasingly from LICs. Indeed, mineral ore production has been a key factor in a number of lower-income countries experiencing rapid economic growth and becoming middle-income countries, such as Bolivia and Peru in South America.
矿物矿石在世界各地都有，不同的矿石形态各不相同。一些高收入国家有较长的矿物矿石生产历史，这意味着其国内的矿物矿石供应已严重枯竭，剩下的储量开采经济性较差，如康沃尔的铜和锡。有一些高收入国家拥有丰富的矿物矿石储量，如加拿大和澳大利亚，它们还有几十年的可开采储量。目前的采购趋势是，矿物矿的生产越来越多地来自低收入国家。事实上，矿物矿石生产一直是一些低收入国家经历快速经济增长并成为中等收入国家的关键因素，如南美的玻利维亚和秘鲁。
Historically, industrialised HICs such as the USA, Japan and those in Europe have dominated consumption of mineral ores. As with production, patterns of consumption are now shifting to NICs (newly industrialising countries) as they use these mineral ores in their growing manufacturing sectors. The rise of China as a global manufacturing powerhouse has seen it become the world’s largest consumer of many mineral ores, including copper (for electricity cables), iron and nickel (used to make steel) and rare earth elements (REEs), which are essential to many hi-tech products.
历史上，工业化的高收入国家，如美国、日本和欧洲国家，一直主导着矿石的消费。与生产一样，现在消费模式正在向新兴工业化国家转移，因为它们在不断增长的制造业中使用这些矿物矿石。中国作为全球制造业大国的崛起，已经成为世界上许多矿产资源的最大消费国，包括铜（用于电缆）、铁和镍（用于制造钢铁）以及对许多高科技产品至关重要的稀土元素（REEs）。
Trade in mineral ores 矿物矿石的贸易Mineral ores are readily transported by bulk ore-carriers to ports close to manufacturing centres around the world. The ore is usually semi-processed to discard waste material and concentrate the mineral at the production site before being transported and is often subject to final processing once it has reached its market. Deindustrialisation in Europe and changing patterns of demand across lower-income countries has meant that the global patterns of mineral ore trade have been much more variable than those seen in fossil fuels as the market in mineral commodities is more volatile; energy demand is reasonably consistent while manufacturing cycles vary.
矿石很容易被散装矿石运输船运到世界各地制造中心附近的港口。矿石在运输前通常在生产现场进行半加工，以丢弃废料并浓缩矿物，一旦到达市场，通常还要进行最终加工。欧洲的非工业化和低收入国家需求模式的变化，意味着全球矿物矿石贸易模式比化石燃料的贸易模式变化更大，因为矿物商品的市场更不稳定；能源需求相当稳定，而制造业周期不同。
The economic recession following the financial crisis of 2007-08 led to lower global demand and less trade in mineral ores. Further to this, increasing recycling (of copper, steel and aluminium, for example) and the use of alternative materials (silicon optical fibre rather than copper in telecommunications) has also seen demand for mineral ores fall. The lower demand has led to falling prices for many mineral ores which has seen production cutbacks by the few mining TNCs which dominate the global trading market.
2007-08年金融危机后的经济衰退，导致全球需求下降，矿物矿石贸易减少。除此之外，越来越多的回收利用（例如铜、钢和铝）和替代材料的使用（电信业中使用硅光纤而不是铜）也使得对矿物矿石的需求下降。需求的减少导致许多矿物质的价格下降，这使得在全球贸易市场上占主导地位的少数矿业跨国公司削减了生产。
As with any kind of trade, there are questions arising about ‘who benefits’ from the international trade of mineral ores. This is further complicated by the role of TNCs in mineral ore production. The actions of China in securing access to mineral ores have also raised questions for both the lower-income countries producing mineral ores and the countries competing with China in manufacturing which are attempting to gain access to mineral ore reserves. In order to secure sufficient mineral ores for its manufacturing needs, China is increasingly extending trade relationships with many African countries as being a continent of vast, largely untapped mineral wealth. China also possesses the financial surplus to invest in extensive mining operations and the associated infrastructure for export facilities.
与任何种类的贸易一样，出现了关于 "谁从矿石的国际贸易中受益 "的问题。跨国公司在矿石生产中的作用使问题更加复杂。中国在确保获得矿石方面的行动也给生产矿石的低收入国家和在制造业方面与中国竞争并试图获得矿石储备的国家带来了问题。为了确保有足够的矿石满足其制造业的需求，中国正日益扩大与许多非洲国家的贸易关系，因为非洲大陆拥有巨大的、基本未开发的矿产财富。中国也拥有财政盈余，可以投资于广泛的采矿业务和相关的出口设施的基础设施。
As many LICs become significant producers and exporters of mineral ores, this provides a means to economic and social development. However, being resource-rich comes with a range of pitfalls that have been referred to as the ‘resource curse’. The ‘curse’ is mainly the result of the country’s economy becoming dominated and subsequently reliant on the production and export of a narrow range of natural resources, which bring a low financial return. As a result, other sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing, do not receive the investment required for growth. Mining is increasingly mechanised, so job creation is limited and that which is - often low-skilled. Furthermore, with the economy dependent on a single industry, it is susceptible to falling global prices for that resource.
随着许多低收入国家成为重要的矿石生产国和出口国，这为经济和社会发展提供了一种手段。然而，资源丰富也带来了一系列的隐患，被称为 "资源诅咒"。这种 "诅咒 "主要是由于国家的经济成为主导，随后依赖生产和出口范围较小的自然资源，而这些资源带来的经济回报较低。因此，经济的其他部门，如制造业，没有得到增长所需的投资。采矿业的机械化程度越来越高，因此创造的就业机会有限，而且往往是低技能的。此外，由于经济依赖于单一行业，它很容易受到该资源的全球价格下跌的影响。
In the development of mineral ore extraction, the governments of lower-income countries are likely to depend on mining TNCs for resource exploitation. TNCs provide technical expertise and the investment necessary for the large-scale infrastructure associated with the extraction, processing and movement to port facilities. As with any TNCs however, only a limited share of profits from the mineral exploitation remains in the country and many of the higher-income jobs go to foreign workers of the TNC.
在矿物开采的发展中，低收入国家的政府很可能依赖采矿业跨国公司进行资源开发。跨国公司提供技术专长，以及与开采、加工和运往港口设施相关的大规模基础设施所需的投资。然而，与任何跨国公司一样，矿产开采的利润只有有限的份额留在国内，许多高收入的工作岗位都给了跨国公司的外国工人。
Some countries have successfully avoided the effects of the resource curse and also managed to exert some control over mineral prices in order to maximise the income from their mineral deposits. Indonesia reduced exports of bauxite and nickel by requiring mining TNCs to process the raw minerals in Indonesia. Historically Indonesia has a good track-record of maximising its share of the proceeds from natural resource extraction, having pioneered new contractual arrangements with oil TNCs in the 1960s that saw the Indonesian government enjoy a greater share of oil revenues. It is now extending those legal framework strategies to the licences it negotiates with mineral ore TNCs to ensure a fairer return on profits and greater share of the higher-value processing operations.
一些国家已经成功地避免了资源诅咒的影响，还设法对矿产价格进行了一些控制，以最大限度地提高其矿藏的收入。印度尼西亚通过要求采矿业跨国公司在印度尼西亚加工原矿来减少铝土矿和镍的出口。从历史上看，印度尼西亚在最大限度地分享自然资源开采收益方面有着良好的记录，它在20世纪60年代率先与石油跨国公司达成了新的合同安排，使印度尼西亚政府享有更大的石油收入份额。现在，它正在将这些法律框架战略扩展到与矿产跨国公司谈判的许可证，以确保更公平的利润回报和更多的高价值加工业务份额。
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