In life cycle analysis, a component of industrial ecology, we make quantitative calculations of the costs of the production, use, and disposal of products made of alternative materials, and of the consequences of the substitution of one resource or material for another. Our research on life cycle analysis of industries engaged in primary production of mineral resources draws on historical and material evidence to extend the analysis over hundreds of years to thousands of years. Much surviving material evidence is in waste materials found at mining and smelting sites. Petrographic and metallographic techniques are used to reconstruct past beneficiation and smelting practices, and to trace waste streams from these activities. Current research is on the industrial ecology of early metal production in South America and Africa, and of iron mining and smelting in eastern North America.
Research is also in progress on the industrial use of surface water resources.
A Guide to History and Archeology. Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. Oxford UniversityPress paperback edition. Johns Hopkins University Press.