why is iron ore the backbone of the industrial industries

However planned a programme of mineral development may be, a

time will be reached when there will be no minerals left in the humanly

accessible parts of the earth. The duration of the 'Mineral Age' itself in

human civilization will depend on the rate at which it reaches the

exhaustion point of the mineral resources. Distant future will recognize the

'mineral culture' of the present age as a passing phase of human

civilization and the science of mining as an ancient science. Its literature

and technique will be looked upon by posterity as a phase in the sum total

of man's knowledge in a bygone age. The 'Metal Epoch' (for that is what it

might come to be known as) of human civilization will arouse the academic

curiosity of only students of human history much as the present day

archaeologist, the anthropologist and the historian is interested in the

'Stone Age' and later ages gone by. It is sad to imagine that, if the

substitutes for the vanished minerals and metals prove more handy and

effective, the very science of present-day mineralogy and the mining

techniques would be patronizingly described as laborious process of a

half-civilized age in building up human welfare-a welfare which they

themselves destroyed by depleting the minerals through overproduction.

If, however, on the other hand, the world of the future is destined to be

handicapped by the absence of minerals and if it finds their substitutes

hard to win and not serviceable enough when won, according to

contemporary standards, the age of minerals will be immortalized as the

golden age of human civilization with utmost reverence to the savants who

knew the great science and with a degree of admiration which might well

outstrip our present reverence for the metallurgical knowledge of the

ancients who created long-lasting monuments of the world, such as the

iron pillar of Delhi and the pyramids of Egypt