Several of the most important nonfuel mineral resources

a. are in danger of imminent depletion, and it is therefore important that substitutes
be found in the immediate near-term future.
b. are produced in few locations, and this has given rise to some fear that mineral
resource cartels modeled after OPEC will be formed to control mineral production
and prices.
c. have become extremely expensive in the 1990s, leading to fears that a resourceinduced
economic collapse will take place later this decade.
d. are produced only in Russia. Thus, if communists return to power there, they
could still hurt the West economically by stopping mineral exports.

b