The sustainability of mineral use, like the definition of sustainable consumption patterns, is a function both of the availability of resources and of the environmental impacts of resource use. The environmental impacts are a major factor in modifying consumption patterns and therefore in moderating demand. In spite of a number of factors tending to moderate demand, global demand is likely to continue to increase for the foreseeable future, mainly as a result of the continuing increase in global population which is unlikely to be stabilised before the end of the 21st century. Discussion of the relationship between population, resource use and the environment, using the concepts of the support square and per capita resource use, illustrates the unsustainability of present demand trends and of the consumption patterns that cause them. It is therefore important that strategies to maintain supply be linked to effective strategies to move to sustainable consumption patterns. The capacity to meet the demand for minerals is also being reduced, as the global population increases, by concerns about environmental impacts and by competing land uses. It is therefore important that minerals issues should be part of the integrated approach to land management promoted in Agenda 21. Sustainability is a long-term concept involving inter-generational equity, and the time scales are beyond those of the reasonably foreseeable future. It is not possible to see beyond a definable horizon of sustainability and the precautionary principle is therefore important for global management strategies. The paper identifies a number of steps at the global level which can assist in the management of resources and of environmental impacts during the period of transition to more sustainable consumption patterns. These relate to improvements in knowledge (1) for assessing the impacts of mineral use in the industrial system as an essential basis for improving efficiency and determining optimum consumption patterns; (2) for monitoring the chemical health of the global land surface; and (3) for assessing resource potential in ways that can be integrated with other land use information, and that can be used to push back the horizon of sustainability.
