Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Role of Energy in the Processing of Southern Africa's Minerals |
Author: | Van Rensburg, W.C.J. |
Year: | 1977 |
Periodical: | South African Journal of African Affairs |
Volume: | 7 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 3-12 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Southern Africa |
Subjects: | energy resources mining Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology |
Abstract: | The supply of mineral raw materials and sources of energy will increasingly be affected by social and political factors. The energy crisis, which started in October 1973, has shown that the cheap energy policies, which Western countries had followed, resulted in the decline of their domestic energy industries and in a failure to develop the technology for the use of alternative sources of energy. The South African energy economy is unique in its heavy reliance on coal as a primary source of energy, and because of the energy-intensive nature of its economy, resulting from the exploitation and processing of abundant reserves of metals and minerals. S.A.'s future economic development will depend on the exploitation and processing of its metal and mineral resources. Major growth in these industries will require massive inputs of energy. This energy will have to be derived mainly from coal. Hence the importance of developing the technology to produce the necessary reductants from S.A's low-grade coal deposits. Table; ref. |