Citation by Jonathan G. Price
Dr. Lawrence D. (Larry) Meinert is the 2024 Michel T. Halbouty Distinguished Lecturer. This lectureship was established to highlight topics of natural resources at GSA meetings. With 16 years of experience as the Editor of the journal Economic Geology, Larry has a broader understanding of metallic and non-metallic ore deposits than perhaps anyone else alive.
As a faculty member, his research expertise in skarn deposits earned him the Silver Medal of the Society of Economic Geologists and established him as a consultant to mineral-exploration and mining companies worldwide. Larry has been a GSA member since joining in 1976 as a graduate student. He and his students have presented some of the best talks at GSA and other meetings.
Larry’s career took a turn to science policy and management when he became the GSA-USGS Congressional Science Fellow, which then led to leadership positions in the USGS Energy and Minerals Programs. Through work with Congress and within the Administration, he revitalized the Minerals Program to be recognized broadly as relevant to national interests. His efforts have helped to heighten awareness of the need for significantly increasing the discovery, permitting, and mining of many mineral resources to meet the needs of a low-carbon economy and to provide sustainability for the impacted communities and environments.
In recent years Larry has expanded his natural resource interests beyond Earth, to explore the emerging potential for the use of space resources. He has written several landmark papers on this subject, advised private industry on the possibilities and limitations of space resources, and teaches the first part of the world’s only graduate research program on space resources at the Colorado School of Mines, where he has an adjunct appointment.
On another resource-related front, as an expert in terroir, the environmental factors affecting quality of wine (geology on which the soil develops, topography, and local climate), and vintner, Larry is well qualified to be the ringleader of the Hydrothermal Fluid Society, an informal group of wine-loving geos who gather at international meetings.
Response by Lawrence D. Meinert
The Michel T. Halbouty Distinguished Lectureship honors the extraordinary career of a person whose accomplishments in the natural resources industry and various governmental and scientific committees are legendary. As the 25th recipient of this award, I am delighted to be able to expand on one of my favorite topics—that mineral resources are the building blocks of modern civilization.
Through 30 years as a university professor guiding the education and research of hundreds of students, followed by government service in Congress as a GSA/USGS Congressional Fellow and subsequently as head of the Energy and Mineral Resources Programs at the USGS, I have helped shape America’s mineral resource future. The world faces numerous challenges, from feeding and housing a growing population to tackling climate change. For each of these, mineral resources, ranging from copper and fertilizers to a variety of critical technology and battery metals, will continue their historic role as central to solving these monumental problems.
It is obvious that population growth and resource utilization cannot be unlimited on a finite Earth although many studies, including the infamous 1972 Limits to Growth, incorrectly conflate resource exhaustion with economic, ecological, and social disaster. Even though resource exhaustion is not an imminent concern, supply disruptions and the negative consequences of overuse (as exemplified by rising CO levels and increasing concerns about climate change) are real problems and none of them are caused by a shortage of mineral resources. Rather, a major concern is that mineral resource supply chains are subject to disruption by a host of natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis as well as problems caused by human-related war, terrorism, political maneuvering, and deteriorating infrastructure. An evolving mix of mineral resources that tap a majority of the Periodic Table will be essential in the coming green energy transition and decarbonization of the global economy.
A looming problem is the declining numbers of economic geology programs to train the next generation of explorers for the mineral resources that society needs. Worldwide, and particularly in the United States, universities are cutting economic geology programs due to a perceived lack of student interest and insufficient funding by government agencies such as the National Science Foundation. Understanding resource economics and supply chain issues is fundamental in determining a societal path forward. The clearly articulated United Nations sustainability goals provide a framework for that future path. The European Union is leading the way with benchmarks for taking responsibility for the resources that their society is consuming, rather than “offshoring“ the consequences of resource consumption to distant countries with lower standards of accountability.
Increasing world population complicates possible solutions; since 1960 we have added another billion people to Earth’s population approximately every 13 years. This raises the question of the carrying capacity of Planet Earth. We are currently at 8 billion people and growing. If 8 billion is not too much (and the emerging degrowth movement would argue that it is), is 10 billion, 15 billion, or 25 billion? In spite of the above cautions, there remains a realistic path forward that allows mineral resources to continue their historic role as the building blocks that underlie modern society. I remain optimistic that we can confront and solve these monumental problems.