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In the productive process, materials are col
lected, changed Into useful forms, then dispersed
through use. They are neither created nor destroyed.
With crops, for example, various minerals are extracted
by plants and fashioned into useful products by the
plants themselves. A ton of harvested plantlife
represents a ton of material taken from the earth and
air, in this instance mined by the process of plant
growth; the plants, in effect, perform the function of
mining machine as well as processor. Through use, the
minerals incorporated in the plant and product are
changed chemically and dispersed.
In manufacturing, as in agriculture, minerals
are taken from the earth, concentrated, and molded into
useful objects. Through use the concentrated minerals
are then dispersed again, almost completely in the
case of mineral fuels, not so completely in the case
of most metals.
Mining thus is but the first step in the total
productive process, a step not exceeded in importance
by any other. The act of freeing copper from the
soil, for example, is as much a part of production as
is concentrating the ore, smelting and refining it,
shaping, molding, and installing it in the form of a
finished product. Thus, if a given level of production
requires a given level of copper use, it also requires
copper mining, a steady withdrawal of metal from a
limited store.