Societal and environmental importance of geological resources has to be fully considered, as well as their
relevance to national heritage conservation, tourism development, etc. Geological resources are usually
understood in the context of mineral extraction, energy production, and waste storage, but their significance
to the society is also linked to their heritage value. As geological resources constitute a part of
the natural heritage, they need conservation and sustainable exploitation. Evidently, mineral and
geological heritage (geoheritage) resources often co-occur. Production of raw material via extraction
from the interiors and subsequent processing determine certain heritage value. As a result, the combined
mining and geoheritage resource should be recognized. Such a resource can be exploited for the purposes
of mining and tourism. For instance, huge reserves and globally-important production of kaolin,
phosphate, and cement in Egypt determine the existence of the combined mineral and geoheritage
resources that can be doubly exploited (for mining and tourism) and conserved. Some sites relevant to
mining and processing of the noted raw materials are potential geoheritage sites (in Egypt, these include
the Kalabsha and El-Sebaiya quarries and the Medcom-Aswan cement factory). Management of miningrelated
geoheritage is challenging, and disputes between different stakeholders are possible. Special
policy related to simultaneous exploitation and conservation of the combined mineral and geoheritage
resource has to be developed. In order to better evaluate the combined mineral and geoheritage resource,
it is recommended to link its potential to provisioning and recreational geosystem services analogous to
the similar ecosystem services. |
