The developed world's appetite continues to increase for the goods produced from metals and minerals. In recent years, the populations of developing countries have received a taste of what the mining industry can bring to them. And they want more.It should follow, then, that building and operating a mine should occur with relative ease. Not so. The forces that seek to restrict mining activities have grown even stronger. Witness the lame-duck administration in Washington, DC that, in its final days, attempted to lock up millions of acres of public land from natural resource development. And political change in the United States and the rest of the world has affected where exploration can take place and where new mines will he located. In Montana, for example, voters two years ago effectively halted the mining of low-grade gold ore in that state when they passed a ban on the use of cyanide. A similar measure in Colorado last year never got off the ground. However, miners in that state can look forward to the issue being revisited in 2002.
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