U.N. ADVISES MINES TO FIGHT METAL SUBSTITUTES
Mining companies may have to
develop specialty metals and metal-containing products if
plastics and other substitutes are not to make further inroads
in their markets, according to the United Nations.
    In a report by Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar on
world mineral resources, U.N. experts termed conditions in the
non-fuel mineral industry "unlike anything that has been
experienced for the last half century."
    Effects of slower global economic growth were compounded by
diminishing use of the major and base metals and the
development of substitutes in traditional markets, it said.
    The report was prepared for a nine-day session next month
of the U.N. committee on natural resources, an organ of the
Economic and Social Council.
    The gap between world productive capacity and demand would
eventually be eliminated by closing mines, the report
predicted.
    "Although for the most part mining companies have been slow
to develop specialty metals and metal-containing products and
to develop markets for such products, it seems that such
activities will be needed if plastics and other metal
substitutes are not to make further inroads into the
traditional markets for the major and base metals," the experts
said.
    "Integration of metal-producing and manufacturing
enterprises between and among developed economies seems to be a
likely consequence."
    The report noted that, because of low prices, there was
little incentive for new investment in mining except in the
case of gold, which continued to attract investment at current
prices with important increases in production in the past two
years in North America, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Latin
America.
 Reuter
