ABSTRACT
Minerals provide the raw materials for construction, for industrial processes and some for essential energy. Minerals can only be extracted where they occur. The extraction of minerals is a destructive process. Local building styles, for instance, reflect the local materials, and are very different in an area of clay from an area of limestone. The details of production figures and areas are published by the British Geological Survey in the UK Minerals Yearbook. The governance and planning of minerals has followed a different route over the last 50 years from the main activity of town and country planning. The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 introduced powers for minerals which are similar to those for other uses survey, land allocation, compulsory purchase power, granting of permissions and imposition of conditions. The Department of the Environment introduced the Planning Policy Guidance Notes (PPGs) to replace and upgrade previous advice in circulars, and for minerals, the Green Book, focusing on national policy.
