Abstract
Mineral and energy resources have played a vital role in shaping the modern industrial world, but concentrations of these resources profitable to extract are found in just a few specific areas in the world due to unique geologic characteristics. These mineral active regions with stocks of mineral and energy resources have undergone decades of extraction, ‘fuelling’ economic development. Although some countries have benefited greatly from mineral extraction, others have failed to capitalize on these whilst frequently left with the environmental damage of extractive activities and trade-offs on social and economic variables in regions of extraction.