Mineral commodities are grouped into metallic minerals, industrial minerals or non-metals and fuel minerals. A potential group of commercial signifi- cance in the foreseeable future consists of the deep seabed minerals.

Global patterns of mineral production and use are currently going through a period of extreme change, underscored by the slowing down in the overall rate of market growth, the broadening of the supply base both in kind and location, and the increasing role of developing countries both as suppliers and consumers.

he 20th century had brought very great changes in mining operations. An extreme shift in the location of mining, as industrialized countries, which owed much of their economic development to their mineral endowment, became less important as producers of raw materials and more important as producers of finished goods. In part this shift in emphasis was because the best of their mineral resources had been consumed in the first surge of development, and the increasing costs of mining including growing costs of preservation and restoration of the environment, made some mining operations uneconomic. At the same time, rich new deposits had been discovered in other countries that have taken over as major sources of mineral raw materials.