I've found this to be particularly true in developing countries. There, anyone clever enough to graduate as a geologist quite understandably goes and works for the petroleum company, the copper mine or in the diamond fields - where the money is. Their course at university will have been oriented towards the needs of those industries. So it's difficult to find a local geologist who can determine the characteristics of a clay, such as its plasticity, be able to tell if a limestone is going to be suitable for making lime or know who locally could be potential consumers for a silica sand. Slowly the situation is changing.
Governments are now more aware of the role of the industrial minerals in development.
Mining and processing locally creates downstream industries, employment and develops skills. Imported raw materials and products based on such minerals can eventually be replaced by locally produced materials. There is a realisation that a dollar saved by replacing an import is worth more to a country's development than the dollar earned by exporting raw or only partly upgraded raw materials for the international market. A national pride develops when it is seen that the country is able to use its own raw material sources to manufacture domestic items such as glassware, cups and saucers, as well as building materials, soil conditioners, etc. So I gain much pleasure working to try and achieve successful utilisation of a country's own resources of these 'really useful rocks and minerals', processing locally and consuming nationally or in the region.