1
Compiled by Dr. Joe Herbertson
June 2001
Sustainable Resource
Processing
Top ten
transformed minerals - in order of value
Top ten transformed minerals, Value of virgin material Cumulative
percentage
in
order of value content1 / Billion
US$ of total
production value
Iron metal (steel) 110 32%
Cement (Portland) 102 62%
Aluminium metal 38 73%
Copper metal 22 80%
Gold - total virgin metal2 22 86%
Titanium in titanium dioxide pigment 10 89%
Zinc metal 8.4 92%
Nickel - total metallic content of
products 7.6 94%
PGMs - total platinum and palladium 7.2 96%
Nickel metal (included in total
nickel) 4.7
Manganese - total metallic content3 4.6 97%
1: Value indicates the resources
devoted to the extraction of the virgin material in the quantities used by
Society.
2: Gold includes virgin gold as
byproduct of other metal production
3: Most (> about 75%) of manganese
values are included with steel as alloying elements.