• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.201-212
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• 2016

Due to growing problems securing stable mineral and energy resources with international political and economic changes, China has dedicated itself to strategies and policies to enhance its stable mineral and energy resources security. China has established a rare earth elements(REE) industry policy after the abolition of the REE exports quota system. China's six large REE companies have also been integrated into REE mining, smelting and refining companies. Efforts have been increased to enhance China's energy security through unconventional oil and gas exploration and development investment, as well as effort in R&D. The country will focus on technology development and exploration to promote commercial production of unconventional oil and gas based on countries with shale gas. China is making long-term contracts and joint ventures to ensure the acquisition of reliable mineral and energy resources from abroad. Government of China has proposed a range of initiatives, such as the integration of resources development strategies and environmental development strategies, internationalization of resource management, supply diversification and advancement, strengthening industry linking strategy, grouping and diversification strategy.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.439-450
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• 2020

Global warming caused by the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is being treated as a major problem for the human life, and mineral carbonation is drawing attention as one of many countermeasures against this situation. In this study, mineral carbonation experiments using autoclaved lightweight concrete (ALC) were performed under various conditions to determine its potential as a carbonation material. ALC can be regarded as a promising material for carbonation because it contains about 27 wt.% of CaO, a major component of mineral carbonation. The CaCO3 content produced as a result of the carbonation of ALC calculated on the assumption that all of the CaO content participates in mineral carbonation is about 40 wt.%. The optimum conditions for the mineral carbonation reaction from ALC are the solid-liquid ratio of 0.01 and the reaction time of 180 minutes when calcite is considered as a single product, or 0.06 and 180 minutes when mixture of calcite and vaterite can be considered. The coexistence of vaterite with calcite at solid-liquid ratio of 0.06 or higher was interpreted to be the case where vaterite formed in the later stage and did not change to calcite until the reaction was completed.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.29-41
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• 2024

The increasing demand for metallic minerals due to global growth and the continued exploitation of near-surface minerals requires safe and efficient ways to mine ores present in deep mines. In deep mines, stresses concentrated around the cavity increase, which can lead to problems such as induced seismicity and rockbursts. In addition, the transfer of energy from blasting to deeply located faults can cause fault slip, which can lead to earthquakes, and controlling these events is key to deep mining methods. In this technical report, we will introduce the Underhand Closed Bench (UCB) mining method, which can control possible accidents and increase productivity when mining in deep mines.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.173-182
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• 2022

Dongsuak crater, located in the mid-mountainous region of Jeju Island, is located at an altitude of about 700 m, and the newly discovered Dongsuak spinel peridotites was enclosed in Dongsuak alkaline basalt. The Dongsuak spinel peridotites are composed of olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, and spinel with porphyroclastic texture under the an equilibrium state. The variations of mineral major and trace compositions indicates that the Dongsuak spinel peridotites originate at depth from 66 to 88 km under an equilibrium temperature of about 960℃~1068℃. The Dongsuak spinel peridotites have been undergone about 1~3% fractional melting. The LREE-enriched characteristics indicate that the Dongsuak spinel peridotites have been undergone cryptic metasomatism by silicate melt without new minerals.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.343-355
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• 1985

Spectral reflectivity and microhardness were measured quantitatively on polished surfaces of a selection of bireflecting minerals obtained from several well known metallic deposits. Incremental errors are much higher than decremental errors and errors were found to be lowest in the spectral region close to the green wavelength ($544m{\mu}$). The characteristics of the spectral profile are significant in their control of white light color. The covellite and graphite have reflectivity profiles similar in shape for each principal direction, showing noticeable difference in magnitude between the profiles: The spectral reflectivity of covellite parallel to the extraordinary vibration is higher (R$$\simeq_-$$10%) than that parallel to the ordinary vibration and graphite shows opposite feature. Reflectivity of the enargite and famatinite cut parallel to the cleavage plane is always higher (R$$\simeq_-$$5%) than that of the section cut normal. The optical symmetry of 5 bireflecting minerals was determined by noting the variation in reflectivity at $544m{\mu}$. The data indicate that covellite is optically uniaxial positive and graphite is optically uniaxial negative. The Rm values for enargite and famatinite are clearly closer to the minimum value for the mineral ($R_1$) than to the maximum value ($R_2$) : the minerals can be recognized as optically biaxial positive. Enargite and famatinite cut parallel to cleavage have much higher hardness values (HV=> $200kg/mm^2$) than those cut normal to cleavage. Vickers indentations exhibit characteristic features for all the bireflecting mineral species studied. Broad radicle groupings of the mineral species can be made with regard to the reflectivity microhardness numbers.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.399-406
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• 2022

In line with the megatrend of 2050 carbon neutrality, the amount of critical minerals used in clean-energy technology is expected to increase fourfold and sixfold, respectively, according to the Paris Agreement-based scenario as well as the 2050 carbon-neutrality scenario. And, in the case of Korea, in terms of the battery supply chain used for secondary batteries, the midstream that manufactures battery materials and battery cell packs shows strength, but the upstream that provides and processes raw materials is experiencing difficulties. The Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources has established a strategy to secure lithium, nickel, and cobalt and is conducting surveys to respond to the upstream risk of these types of battery raw materials. In the case of lithium, exploration has been carried out in Uljin, Gyeongsangbuk-do since 2020, and by the end of 2021, the survey area was selected for precision exploration by synthesizing all exploration data and building a 3D model. Potential resources will be assessed in 2022. In the case of nickel, the prospective site will be selected by the end of 2022 through a preliminary survey targeting 10 nickel sulfide deposits that have been prospected in the past. In the case of cobalt, Boguk cobalt is known only in South Korea, but there is only a record that cobalt was produced as a minor constituent of hydrothermal deposit. According to the literature, a cobalt ore body was found in the contact area between serpentinite and granite, and a protocol for cobalt exploration in Korea will be established.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.49-59
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• 2012

One of the world's top resource-rich countries, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has ample reserves of cobalt, iron ore, copper and diamond in particular. Importing most of major mineral resources, the Republic of Korea has examined-together with the Congo government since 2008-the possibility of a project where it supports port construction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and acquires useful minerals such as zinc, cobalt and copper in exchange through slag reprocessing in the local city of Lubumbashi. This study conducted feasibility analysis on the slag reprocessing project in Lubumbashi, Congo and found that the project's payback period stands at 6.7 years, net present value(NPV) at 34 million dollars and internal rate of return(IRR) at 17.4%. According to sensitivity analysis that takes into account uncertainties concerning taxation, fixed cost, operational cost and resource prices, the NPV of the project ranges from -24.8 million dollars to 92.7 million dollars.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.53-61
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• 2006

We propose public-oriented e-Marketplace framework construction that activates efficiently transaction of non-metal industrial resources through the case of Mineralland. The firms of Non-metal industrial resources domain have low information level and weak capital structure. So public enterprise has to construct e-marketplace to trade using exact market information. This framework consists of five domains-contents, commerces, communities, collaboration and electronic authentication. To draw this framework, we review many web-sites and literatures about B2B of industrial resources domain. In addition, this study provides practical implications and guidelines for activating public oriented e-Marketplace of non metal industrial resources.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.291-302
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• 2014

The Chinese government and its agencies were trying in order to solve the unstability of resource supply and demand. Ministry of Land and Resources of China(MLR) carried out a lot of national-level policy and planning for estimating the domestic mineral and energy resources potential and recoverable reserves, as the Chinese land and resources survey plan(1999~2010), the Chinese mineral resource survey and exploration plan(2008~2020), announcement for shale gas industry policies of China, the Chinese shale gas resources evaluation and selection project for its development priority areas(2012), and the plan for Chinese shale gas development(2011~2015). The two large sedimentary basins of Chinese shale gas reserves are Sichuan and Tarim basins with excellent potential, accounting for majority of the estimated national reserves. Recoverable gas-bearing shale of China was surveyed to be widespread. The volume of recoverable shale gas reservoirs in China has been estimated to be around 31 trillion cubic meters(1,115 trillion cubic feet). China is one of only three countries with the US and Canada to produce shale gas in commercial quantities. China is concentrating on technology development to enhance commercial production of shale gas, and on survey and exploration activities to increase its recoverable reserves. The trends related to shale gas development and R&D activities in China to respond to changes in international oil market should be actively monitored based on analysis of Chinese policies and technology.

• Spatial Information Research
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.21-30
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• 2013

Recently, interest of submarine mineral resources has been increasing from the depletion of land resources around the world and many countries are involving in submarine mineral resource exploration work. South Korea is also in progress of mineral exploration and relevant study to ensure the submarine mineral resources from around the Korean Peninsula. As a result, the submarine mineral resource exploration data have been increasing annually. A database and 2D GIS-based system have been constructed for the management of the data. However, submarine mineral resource exploration data is explored and created on the sea-bed. Consequently, the visual confirmation of the water levels and marine landform is important for high dimension analysis. Therefore, the major aims of this study are to collect marine landform data from around the Korean Peninsula and to develop 3 dimension GIS based system that is linked to the submarine mineral resource exploration data. In detail, marine landform data were acquired for the Korean Peninsula and they were interpolated into raster file format. The raster file was then processed to be easily used and was entered into an Oracle database. Based on this database, 3D expression and overlap function between marine landform data and submarine mineral resource exploration data were designed using ArcScene offered by the ESRI. After design, 3D GIS based expression system was developed. Confirmations of locations and changes in the submarine mineral resource exploration data based on 3D GIS are enabled to support the efficient application of the proposed system. It is expected that this system will be highly useful for estimating the reserves of mineral resources and for providing valuable information for economic evaluations.