and quarrying will be affected by a large number of economic, technological, environmental and social issues within the UK. Global developments also have a role to play. Although mining and quarrying account for only 0.9 per cent of the land area of England, the impact of this activity is considerable. Minerals are essential to the economy, for energy, construction, infrastructure and manufacturing, while their extraction has effects on the environment and on public perception. This paper examines current scientific understanding of the context of mining and quarrying, with particular reference to its impact on land use, along with the spatial relationship between minerals -which can only be worked where they occur -and other forms of land use and designation in the 'post-industrial' landscape of Britain. Looking out to 2060 and beyond, developments which may influence demand for minerals include climate change mitigation and adaptation; energy, food and raw material security; and new construction, manufacturing, recycling and re-use technologies. Factors influencing the supply side include the structure and ownership of the mining and quarrying industry, new extraction, processing and environmental technologies, ecosystem service provision, societal attitudes and land access. Although prediction carries a high level of uncertainty, continuous development of the regulatory framework is, and will remain, a major and pervasive factor in the relationship between mining and quarrying and land use.

Identifying and evaluating the factors that might impact on the long-term integrity of a deep Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) and its surrounding geological and surface environment is central to developing a safety case for underground disposal of radioactive waste. The geological environment should be relatively stable and its behaviour adequately predictable so that scientifically sound evaluations of the long-term radiological safety of a GDF can be made. In considering this, it is necessary to take into account natural processes that could affect a GDF or modify its geological environment up to 1millionyears into the future. Key processes considered in this paper include those which result from plate tectonics, such as seismicity and volcanism, as well as climate-related processes, such as erosion, uplift and the effects of glaciation. Understanding the inherent variability of process rates, critical thresholds and likely potential influence of unpredictable perturbations represent significant challenges to predicting the natural environment. From a plate-tectonic perspective, a one million year time frame represents a very short segment of geological time and is largely below the current resolution of observation of past processes. Similarly, predicting climate system evolution on such time-scales, particularly beyond 200ka AP is highly uncertain, relying on estimating the extremes within which climate and related processes may vary with reasonable confidence. The paper highlights some of the challenges facing a deep geological disposal program in the UK to review understanding of the natural changes that may affect siting and design of a GDF.

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This study provides an assessment of the potential for stratiform massive sulphide mineralisation in two parts of south-west England, the Central Area between Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor, and North Devon. The Central Area was selected on the basis of its tectonic, stratigraphical and lithological similarities with the Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB) where numerous volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits occur. North Devon is considered prospective on account of its similarities to the Harz Massif in Germany that hosts the major polymetallic sedimentary exhalative (Sedex) deposit at Rammelsberg. More than 60 stratiform mineral occurrences are known in the two areas and previous exploration, including extensive drainage geochemical surveys, geophysical surveying and drilling, has revealed stratiform mineralisation at some localities, including at Egloskerry, near Bodmin Moor, where up to 10% Pb over 4.5 metres was recorded. In North Devon, stratiform mineralisation has been recorded from a borehole at Honeymead Farm, and further evidence of potential is provided by a distinct aeromagnetic anomaly parallel to the regional strike over the upland areas of Exmoor.The potential for the occurrence of stratiform sulphide deposits in North Devon and the Central Area has been assessed by GISbased prospectivity analysis software, Arc-Spatial Data Modeller (Arc-SDM), using knowledge-driven and data-driven modelling techniques. This analysis used both new and legacy multivariate datasets including geophysics (aeromagnetic and gravity), geochemical data, mineral occurrences, and digital 1:50 000 geological linework. This has confirmed known occurrences as well as identifying new targets for stratiform mineralisation.

excerptSustainable development requires an appropriate abalance between social, economic and environme ntal well-being, now and for the future. Since most minerals are non-renewalble resources, sustainability of supply can only be addressed by extracting, processing and distributing raw in the least environmentally damaging ways, using minerals wisely, and recycling as much as possible. However, there also is significant scope for inproved sustainability in terms of economic and social aspects.Minerals are essential raw materials but high-quality deposits havem become depleted in many developed countries. These countries have increasingly turned to developing countries for supplies and it is in these that modt high-quality untapped futre prospect remain. for countries with limited export opportunities, minerals are often a mainstay of the domestic economy. However, low selling prices may reflect limited environmental regulation and low wages. This can lead to charges that the rich countries are exporting their environmental damage to, andexploiting, poorer countries. As more countries develop, the global demand for supplies of essential raw materials increases, and resources will be depleted more quickly. Therefore, sustainable minerals supply from the developing countries is an important global issue.In this Special Report, general aspects of sustainable minerals operations in the developing world are reviewed by Petterson et al., Hobbs, and Richards while the remaining papers consider specific issues in more detail. Hobbs, in particular, emphasizes the need to give proper weight each to human capital, financial capital, manufactured capital, and environmental capital in any full analysis as a context for sustainable development and effective.