91568 - MINERAL RESOURCE ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing students with the tools to understand issues related to the economics and management of raw materials and its relationship with economic and environmental sustainability. To achieve this goal the course is organized into two distinct yet interrelated modules. In the first module the students will learn how to use and interpret models of resource extraction and harvesting and their implications in terms of pricing of raw materials, environmental pollution and sustainability of economic systems. In the second module, students will acquire a methodological toolkit to autonomously design, understand, and evaluate the economic costs of any venture or governmental initiative related to sustainable materials and their use. The course argues that sustainable business related to materials at its very heart is a matter of innovation because if businesses want to develop sustainable products, service, strategies and solutions they need to be good at innovating their products, services, business models, etc.

Course contents

• Introduction to management, business models and principles for responsible investment
• Introduction to company financial reporting and corporate finance methodologies
• Climate change threats and challenges
• Minerals depletion models and value of natural resources
• Engineering fundamentals of energy efficiency and material efficiency
• Map of natural resource supply, transformation, and use in final services
• Introduction to business ethics

Readings/Bibliography

Class material available on IOL

David Humphreys, The Remaking of the Mining Industry, 2015, Palgrave Macmillan UK

Allwood, JM, and Cullen, J, Sustainable Materials - with both Eyes Open, Cambridge, 2012, Cambridge. Part I, II and III. Available also at http://www.withbotheyesopen.com/

McKay, D J., Sustainable Energy - without the Hot Air, UIT, Cambridge, 2008. Available also at http://www.withouthotair.com/. Part I, III and IV.

Tirole, J., Economics for the Common Good, translated by Steven Rendall, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2018. Chapters 2, 4 and 8.

Teaching methods

Lectures

Presentation and discussion of Business cases

Mock-up exams

Guest speaker

Assignements

Assessment methods

The individual performance is evaluated through individual assignments, the final written test and class participation.

The group’s performance is evaluated through a group assignment that will consist in the analysis of mining company financial reports.

 

Teaching tools

Online teaching

Videos

Business cases

Assignements

Office hours

See the website of Alessandro Pastore