Basic HTML Version
by
Jeft Calkins
A mad scramble for minerals is
in the offing. The resu/ting
competition could produce
chaos in world politics.
T
HE VORACIOUS
demand for in–
creasingly scarce supplies of
raw materials by the major
free-world industrial powers - in
North America, Western Europe,
Australia and Japan - has in–
tensified worldwide competition for
them.
Nations have gone to war over
mineral deposits. The same metals
that fuel national economies have
fueled national confticts.
And now, a new and potentiaUy
grave element in the global mineral
hunt has been added - resource
control.
A first-rate lesson in resource con–
_trol
h~s
already been
:t~u.ght
by the
world's oil producing states. Their
example has not been lost on na:·
tions which find themselves with
rich deposits of other much-sought
mineral wealth.
One American news source put it
bluntly: "The ability of the oil-pro- ·
ducing states to swiftly treble their
prices - and the inability of the
consuming states to counter them -
has had an electric effect on coun–
tries that produce other key materi–
als. They would like to emulate the
Arabs' success."
The Th ird World's Wealth
That vast area called the "Third
World" - Latín America, Africa
and much of Asia - has almost ex–
clusive control of known reserves
1
of
minerals such as tin and antimony.
In addition, Third World states con–
trol much of the world's reserves of
chromium, platinum, manganese
and nickel.
r:-·
"'.
·
...
'Known reserves are that supply o f a mineral tha t
can be easily mined at current pri,-es.
lt
does not
i~lude -if1fertor. . lo~-grade
ore which would take
as tronomica l price increases
10
jus tify mining.
12
Over one third of the world's cop–
per exports come from four Third
World nations - Peru, Za'ire, Zam–
bia and Chile. The tin mines of Bo–
livia and Southeast Asia supply over
two th.irds of the world's exports of
that critica! commodity. One nation
in Africa -Guinea - plus three in
the Caribbean/northern South
American rim area - Jamaica,
Guyana and Surinam - account for
much of the world's exports of
bauxite - the ore from which
aluminum is refined. (Most of the
rest comes from Canada and Aus–
tralia.)
Third World nations have served
clear notice that they intend to use
their mineral wealth for national
purposes. When the "non-aligned
nations" met at a conference in
Algeria about a year ago, they
called for "measures to fight against
the threat to permanent sovereignty
over their natural resources."
Their attitudes can be better un–
derstood from a historical context.
Whether under the mercantilism of
the 18th century or the colonialism
of. the 19th century, the Westem
Christian nations have treated the
nations of Latin America, Africa
and Asia as .economic appendages,
existing for the West's benefit.
While Western missionaries were
propagating traditional forms of
Christianity in the Third World, the
West received tangible goods in re–
turn. Because Third World nations
served basically as storehouses of
raw materials , their economic
growth and material development
tended to lag. Consequently, the
Western Christian world became
open to the charge of exploitation.
With emerging national con–
sciousness and expectations, the
countries of Latín America, Asia
and Africa are gradually realizing
that their resource power gives them
new política! strength. Through raw
materials, these nations are obtain–
ing the power to end the West's his–
torical dominatioo over them.
Such a situation is described in
the Bible. Tite book of
J~el
pictures
a condition of war and agitation in
what the Bible calls the "Gentile"
world (of which the Third World is
certainly the largest part) at the
"end time": "Proclaim ye this
among the Gentiles; Prepare war,
wake up the mighty men, let all the
men of war draw, near; let them
come up: Beat your plowshares into
swords, and your pruninghooks into
spears:
/et the weak say, I am
strong"
(Joel 3:9-10).
The day has come when cen-
turies-old economic arrangements
j
heavily favoring the West are com-
ing to a sudden end, and nations
once militarily weak are able to buy
weaponry with monies received
from the sale of their national re-
sources to the industrial powers.
The " Poor" Rich World
Most of the easily mined, high–
grade mineral deposits have already
been gleaned m Western indus–
trialized nations. No industrial na-
tion, with the possible exception of
the Soviet Union, is totally self–
sufficient in natural resources.
Even Canada,
-~itti
all its re–
sources, lacks chrome. And while
Canada and
Au~tralia
both have·
··
large amounts of petroleum, nickel ,
iron ore and zinc, they can hardly
~
>:
!"'
be counted on to supply the whole
industrialized world in times of
CfiSIS.
The gripping inflation that has af–
flicted Europe for the last severa!
years now is due in large part to the
rapid increase in raw material
prices. Twenty-two years ago, for
example, France met its energy re–
quirements by using 70 percent coa!
and 23 percent oil. Today those fig–
ures have reversed themselves. That
means France finds itself much
more dependent on foreign energy
sources - in part because its good
coa! is depleted. Known reserves in
its Northern Basin region may only
last another twelve years. Reserves
in Alsace-Lorraine, the major coal
producing region of France, may
only last until the end .of the cen–
tury.
Even the United States, once a
vast storehouse of mineral wealth,
PLAIN TRUTH
June-July 1974