Mining economics and the environment

R. Poulin and K. Sinding

Natural Resources Forum, 1993, vol. 17, issue 2, 157-163

Abstract: A mining operation can affect the environment adversely and create costs to others that are external to the mining firm, if no constraints are imposed. To deal with this problem of externalities, various regulatory steps can be taken, eg effluent taxation, subsidies, regulation of emissions by command, and use of emission permits that are tradeable. Bargaining between the polluter and the damaged party over the level of production and compensation remains a more theoretical option. Regardless of what regulatory approach is adopted to transform external costs into internal costs, the resulting higher costs will have an impact on the decisions of a mining firm. Information processes, traditionally focused on finding deposits, have now been broadened to include an environmental dimension. Operating practices can be modified to reflect the need for stable long‐term solutions of waste disposal problems. On the industry level, environmental regulation may lead to sterilization of resources, to higher prices for some commodities and to distortions of competitiveness among commodity producing countries.

Date: 1993
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-8947.1993.tb00171.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:natres:v:17:y:1993:i:2:p:157-163

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Natural Resources Forum from Blackwell Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().