Dominant Strategic Themes of the Natural Resource Industry

SSpeech given at Session 3: Challenge Facing Resource Development. Mr. Adams highlighted the dominant strategic themes that he believes will characterize the natural resource industry as we enter the new century. It should be a period of solid underlying growth for mineral demand, although he added that periodic interruptions reflecting the usual cycles in the world economy will occur. Against this market background, the industry will be dealing with a number of unresolved issues from the late twentieth century, of which the taxation of economic rents, the cost-effectiveness of environmental regulations, and the impact of privatization and deregulation on the competitive cost structure of the industry appear to be the most important.

He believes that the companies that correctly understand and manage these issues will be more likely to succeed than those who do not.