The substances that occur naturally and that are considered as valuable substances in their relatively unmodified or natural form are called natural resources.

Natural resources are the materials that come from the Earth and have value in its raw or “natural” state for one or another reason. Natural resources are not manmade and are the ones which already exist in the Earth. Some examples of natural resources are oil, water, timber, variety of minerals, ores, salt, coal, and metals like iron, gold, manganese, silicon, aluminum, etc.

  Classification of natural resources can be done based on their origin, renewability of natural resource, and development stage.

All living natural resources like plants, animals, birds, and also minerals that are formed by decay of the living matter can be grouped under biotic natural resources. These resources are obtained from the biosphere and they have limited supply. These resources cannot be restored once they are used. Examples include natural gas, oil, coal, peat, etc. Abiotic natural resources are the non living matter. E.g. wind

energy, non-living resources water, solar energy, metals like aluminum, iron, gold, etc.

Renewable natural resources are those which can be easily replenished or reproduced in a fast and easy manner without any extra efforts. E.g. sunlight, water power, biomass, etc.

 Non renewable natural resources are natural resources that exist in a fixed or limited amount that cannot be regenerated or re-made or re-grown at the pace at which it is used up and consumed. These resources cannot be easily refurbished and take long time to.

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Examples non renewable natural resources include coal, oil, petrol, natural gas, gold, etc.

 Potential natural resources are the natural resources which require further development or purification like extracting petrol from the crude oil. We can find bauxite ore as a natural resource, but we need to extract aluminum metal from the bauxite ore so that we can use it. So the bauxite is said to "Potential" natural resource. A natural resource that is ready to use is known as developed or actual natural resource.

    It  is  important to  recognize that not all resources share the same

characteristics. For example, wheat production differs considerably from the extraction of precious gemstones even though both would be classified as primary products in export statistics. Similarly, minerals differ from each other and a relevant difference between mineral resources might be the ease of exploitation. Some resources require relatively minimal investment on extraction equipment and they can be exploited under conflict conditions by a small band of people or by individuals.

   Other resources may require extensive investment in production technology and a stable investment environment to encourage the necessary investment and expertise from large multinational companies. Resources in the second category are better extracted during peaceful conditions, even though the presence of valuable resource may motivate fighting over the control of resource and the associated revenues.

Exercises

Answer the following questions.

  1) What are natural resources?  

  2) Where do natural resources come from?

  3) All living natural resources can be grouped under biotic natural resources‚ can’t they?

  4) Are potential natural resources the natural resources which require further development or purification like extracting petrol from the crude oil?

  5) Do minerals differ from each other or not?

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Find the English equivalent s of the following Russian

Phrases in the text.

  1) Природные ресурсы ;  

  2) природный газ; 

  3) неживая материя;   

  4) бокситовая руда;   

  5) условия инвестирования.