Rio Tinto | Minerals and Metals for the world

Looking towards a sustainable future
One of the cornerstones of sustainable development is protecting the ability of future generations to attend to their own needs.

Everybody's talking about sustainable development, but it's sometimes hard to know exactly what it means. That's often the way with big ideas that lead to profound changes – and they don't come much bigger than sustainable development. To borrow a folksy sentiment, you could say that sustainable development is…never having to say you're sorry – about what you're doing or its effect on the wider world.

One of the cornerstones of sustainable development is protecting the ability of future generations to attend to their own needs. For the foreseeable future, those needs will undoubtedly include metals and minerals. And when all is said and done about recycling, synthetics and deep sea minerals, onshore mining will continue to be the main source for a long while yet. Today's mining industry continues to meet the world's needs from known mineral resources.

Are we scraping the bottom of the barrel, as some say, at a heavy cost to society and the environment? Actually, it would be truer to say that we are still only scratching the surface of the Earth's mineral endowment. No mineral commodity is anywhere close to running out, so even the largest discoveries still leave future generations vast scope for meeting their own needs.



Looking towards a sustainable future One of the cornerstones of sustainable development is protecting the ability of future generations to attend to their own needs. Everybody's talking about sustainable development, but it's sometimes hard to know exactly what it means. That's often the way with big ideas that lead to profound changes – and they don't come much bigger than sustainable development. To borrow a folksy sentiment, you could say that sustainable development is…never having to say you're sorry – about what you're doing or its effect on the wider world. One of the cornerstones of sustainable development is protecting the ability of future generations to attend to their own needs. For the foreseeable future, those needs will undoubtedly include metals and minerals. And when all is said and done about recycling, synthetics and deep sea minerals, onshore mining will continue to be the main source for a long while yet. Today's mining industry continues to meet the world's needs from known mineral resources. Are we scraping the bottom of the barrel, as some say, at a heavy cost to society and the environment? Actually, it would be truer to say that we are still only scratching the surface of the Earth's mineral endowment. No mineral commodity is anywhere close to running out, so even the largest discoveries still leave future generations vast scope for meeting their own needs.
PAGE 1 OF 7

Review is published by Rio Tinto, 6 St James' Square, London SW1Y 4LD, England Telephone +44 (0)20 7930 2399 Editor: Cherry DeGeer