Mineral Resources in Portugal - an Overview

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2002

Authors

Maria de Lurdes Proença de Amorim Dinis (Author) FEUP

Conference proceedings International

Title: Mineral Resource Base of the Southern Caucasus and Systems for its Management in the XXI Century

Pages: 161-166

Mineral Resource Base of the Southern Caucasus and Systems for its Management in the XXI Century

Tiblisi, Georgia, 3 a 6 April 2001

Indexing

ISI Web of Science

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences > Earth and related Environmental sciences

CORDIS: Technological sciences > Engineering ; Natural sciences

Other information

Abstract (EN): The mineral raw-materials are non-renewable resources and those of better quality are being quickly depleted, so it becomes more and more necessary to preserve them for nobler ends, and to treat those of inferior value in order to improve their quality. Moreover the globalisation of the market increased the number of demanding consumers, who will not tolerate products without quality, as well as of foreign suppliers with capacity to fulfil the required specifications. All these prerequisites force the producers to look at the possibility of having to valorise their raw-materials. In the case of metallic ores, most of the mines that were still in operation until the beginning of the eighties, were closed down. Only the high grades and tonnage of Neves-Corvo (massive sulphide, bearing mainly Cu and Sn) and Panasqueira (hydrothermal deposit, mainly containing W, Sn and Cu) Mines, allow their current labouring, although also dependent on external factors. From mid-nineties, a decrease in the production of the mining subsector was registered, as a consequence of the fast regression that was verified in metallic, precious and energy ores. This was caused by a decrease in the international quotation of precious and base metals and the reduction in the production of energy minerals: coal and uranium. In the case of coal, the extreme consequence was the closing down of Pejão Mine, situated near Porto, in the North of Portugal. In the case of uranium it was the decrease in its importance, as an energy mineral, that contributed to the reduction of this subsector. In the case of the ornamental stones, industrial minerals and non-metallic ores, due to their more common occurrence at the surface or at low depths, they could, most of the times, be used in industry as R.O.M. or after very little beneficiation. In Portugal there are mineral resources, which are reasonably well studied, of which, due to their importance and meaning, the following should be pointed out.

Language: Portuguese

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific