November 2006, Michael Stanley and DeVerle Harris | World Bank Group: Oil, Gas and Mining Policy Division
The proposed World Bank’s Dynamic Mineral Resources Management system approach provides for holistic integration of mineral potential and infrastructure development, and the corresponding impacts of the two on the systems around them.
The World Bank’s Oil, Gas, Mining and Chemicals Department provide policy advice to governments worldwide on one of the most globally recognized issues – the development of mineral resources. Dynamic Mineral Resources Management describes the conceptual foundations of an approach being tested by the World Bank staff to better estimate the potential for mineral resources to contribute to the fight against poverty. Countries have widely cited the need for infrastructure to link more remote regions to markets, social services, and security. With an improved understanding of the underlying mineral endowment, estimates of the potential contribution across time can better inform development policies
and lead to strategic investments that may include infrastructure.
The proposed mineral resource assessment approach, being developed by World Bank staff, estimates the quantity and quality of underlying mineral resources, and the economic potential of these resources taking into account alternative regional economic development planning. The approach is holistic in employing a landscape planning approach to consider the impacts of mining and infrastructure on the natural and socio-
economic systems that surround these activities.
