IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/enreec/v7y1996i4p357-373.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reserve characteristics and mining costs An empirical study of the phosphate industry

Author

Listed:
  • A. fnMarvasti

Abstract

This paper deals with an estimation of phosphate mining cost function. Here, it is argued that other characteristics of reserves, besides their size, could be quite important in the cost function. The result of a cross-sectional analysis of phosphate mining in the world shows that reserve size and average total cost have a positive and modest statistically significant relationship in one of the two models. Among many qualitative characteristics and location factors tested in this paper, overburden, grade, ore/product ratio, water availability, and the price of capital are significant with expected signs. Finally, the results confirm the existence of economies of scale in phosphate mining which seem to be more related to mining technology than to reserve size. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1996

Suggested Citation

  • A. fnMarvasti, 1996. "Reserve characteristics and mining costs An empirical study of the phosphate industry," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 7(4), pages 357-373, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:7:y:1996:i:4:p:357-373
    DOI: 10.1007/BF00369624
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF00369624
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/BF00369624?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pindyck, Robert S, 1978. "The Optimal Exploration and Production of Nonrenewable Resources," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 841-861, October.
    2. Pindyck, Robert S, 1980. "Uncertainty and Exhaustible Resource Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(6), pages 1203-1225, December.
    3. Devarajan, Shantayanan & Fisher, Anthony C, 1982. "Exploration and Scarcity," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(6), pages 1279-1290, December.
    4. Robert M. Solow & Frederic Y. Wan, 1976. "Extraction Costs in the Theory of Exhaustible Resources," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 7(2), pages 359-370, Autumn.
    5. Denise Young, 1992. "Cost Specification and Firm Behaviour in a Hotelling Model of Resource Extraction," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 25(1), pages 41-59, February.
    6. Livernois, John R & Uhler, Russell S, 1987. "Extraction Costs and the Economics of Nonrenewable Resources," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(1), pages 195-203, February.
    7. Jorgenson, Dale W, 1971. "Econometric Studies of Investment Behavior: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 1111-1147, December.
    8. Livernois, John R., 1987. "Empirical evidence on the characteristics of extractive technologies: The case of oil," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 72-86, March.
    9. Margaret E. Slade, 1984. "Tax Policy and the Supply of Exhaustible Resources: Theory and Practice," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 60(2), pages 133-147.
    10. Eswaran, Mukesh & Lewis, Tracy R & Heaps, Terry, 1983. "On the Nonexistence of Market Equilibria in Exhaustible Resource Markets with Decreasing Costs," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(1), pages 154-167, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. A. Marvasti, 2000. "Resource Characteristics, Extraction Costs, and Optimal Exploitation of Mineral Resources," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 17(4), pages 395-408, December.
    2. Sweeney, James L., 1993. "Economic theory of depletable resources: An introduction," Handbook of Natural Resource and Energy Economics, in: A. V. Kneese† & J. L. Sweeney (ed.), Handbook of Natural Resource and Energy Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 17, pages 759-854, Elsevier.
    3. Margaret E. Slade & Henry Thille, 2009. "Whither Hotelling: Tests of the Theory of Exhaustible Resources," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 239-259, September.
    4. Ulibarri, Carlos A., 1996. "Non-conventional fuel tax credits and the extraction R&D model," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 207-215, September.
    5. Elin Berg & Snorre Kverndokk & Knut Einar Rosendahl, 1999. "Optimal Oil Exploration under Climate Treaties," Discussion Papers 245, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    6. Hartley, Peter & Medlock III, Kenneth B., 2008. "A model of the operation and development of a National Oil Company," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 2459-2485, September.
    7. Berg, Elin & Kverndokk, Snorre & Rosendahl, Knut Einar, 2002. "Oil Exploration under Climate Treaties," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 493-516, November.
    8. Lin, C.Y. Cynthia, 2009. "An Empirical Dynamic Model of OPEC and Non-OPEC," Working Papers 225895, University of California, Davis, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    9. Jeffrey A. Krautkraemer, 1998. "Nonrenewable Resource Scarcity," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 2065-2107, December.
    10. Cairns, Robert D., 1990. "Les ressources non renouvelables : le côté offre," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 66(4), pages 444-460, décembre.
    11. Hansen, James & Gross, Isaac, 2018. "Commodity price volatility with endogenous natural resources," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 157-180.
    12. Gregory Casey, 2024. "Energy Efficiency and Directed Technical Change: Implications for Climate Change Mitigation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(1), pages 192-228.
    13. Kamiar Mohaddes, 2013. "Econometric modelling of world oil supplies: terminal price and the time to depletion," OPEC Energy Review, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, vol. 37(2), pages 162-193, June.
    14. Okullo, Samuel J. & Reynès, Frédéric & Hofkes, Marjan W., 2015. "Modeling peak oil and the geological constraints on oil production," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 36-56.
    15. Toman, Michael & Krautkraemer, Jeffrey, 2003. "Fundamental Economics of Depletable Energy Supply," RFF Working Paper Series dp-03-01, Resources for the Future.
    16. Antypas, Antonios & Koundouri, Phoebe & Kourogenis, Nikolaos, 2013. "Hotelling Rules: Oscillatory Versus Quadratic Trends in Natural Resource Prices," MPRA Paper 122327, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Boyce, John R., 2003. "Exploration can cause falling non-renewable resource prices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 339-343, July.
    18. Frechette, Darren L., 1999. "Scarcity rents and the returns to mining," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 39-49, March.
    19. Antonios Antypas & Phoebe Koundouri & Nikolaos Kourogenis, 2013. "Oscillatory Versus Quadratic Trends in Natural Resource Commodity Prices," DEOS Working Papers 1305, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    20. Cologni, Alessandro & Manera, Matteo, 2014. "On the economic determinants of oil production," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 68-79.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:7:y:1996:i:4:p:357-373. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.