26 SEG DISCOVERY No 122 • JULY 2020 Pandemics are one of the few events that are truly global and affect all of humanity. Even World Wars I and II, as terrible and far-reaching as they were, did not affect all corners of the globe, and certainly not equally. Pandemics are different, especially in light of modern transportation and the interconnectedness of global business, education, and supply chains. One does not have to be a major partici- pant in the global economy or even be aware of the disease at all to be affected, infected, or possibly killed. Although the long-term effects of COVID-19 are not yet known, there are few in the minerals sector who have not been affected, whether it be by the loss of a loved one or by the economic fallout of attempts to contain the dis- ease. Many universities and mines are closed, research and exploration bud- gets curtailed, and most travel halted. At the time of writing, no one knows how the pandemic will evolve—are we past the worst of it or are there new waves coming? Following this preface are two rapid-response articles to offer a pre- liminary assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the minerals industry and all of us who are connected to it. The first article, by Hitzman et al., reports the results of a survey about the pandemic’s effects on the lives, education, and business of people in the minerals industry. Although necessarily limited in scope, it provides a snapshot in time that sets the stage for the second article, by Simon Jowitt, that offers a preliminary economic analysis of possible effects on prices, stocks, and supply and demand within the minerals industry. The phrase “the new normal” has been used frequently to describe the effects and after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The following two stud- ies are complementary and provide a framework for assessing where we are today and for beginning the process of planning for the future. Although it is likely that both articles would be written differently a year or two from now, they are presented here while the pandemic is still unfolding to provide the view from July 2020. Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel (new) coronavirus affected human activity across the planet in 2020. Early cases of COVID-19 were recorded in China in December 2019 (Huang et al., 2020) and the first cases outside China were confirmed in mid-January 2020 (World Health Orga- nization, 2020a). The World Health Organization (WHO) set up an Incident Management Support Team on January 1, 2020. With increasing numbers of cases throughout the world, the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Over 10 million cases and in excess of a half million deaths were reported world- wide to the end of June 2020 (Euro- pean Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 2020; WHO, 2020b). Outbreaks of COVID-19 over- whelmed medical facilities in several regions, leading governments through- out the world to enforce restrictions Preface: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Mineral Resources Jean Cline, President, Society of Economic Geologists and Lawrence D. Meinert, Editor, Economic Geology Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Minerals Sector: A Real Time Survey Murray Hitzman † , David Kaeter, Aileen Doran, Maeve Boland, Lingli Zhou, David Drejing-Carroll, Subaru Tsuruoka, Sean Johnson, Siobhan Burke, James Stratford, Aoife Brady, and Fergus McAuliffe Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland Abstract Through the implementation of an online survey, run at the end of April 2020, researchers at the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG) explored the immediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the miner- als sector workforce. With more than 1,000 respondents, the survey provides insights into the impact of an unprece- dented global event at a crucial point in its development. Seven weeks after the World Health Organization’s declaration of the pandemic, 65% of survey respon- dents agreed that COVID-19 had a signif- icant impact on their work. Overall, 32% of respondents had experienced negative impacts on their employment, having either lost their jobs or been furloughed/ temporarily laid off, or were working reduced hours. Geographically, the greatest impact on employment was in Africa, where 45% of respondents suffered negative effects. More often, younger respon- dents (ages 18–30) reported lost jobs (14%) whereas older survey participants reported working reduced hours (21%, ages 46–60). Respondents working in mineral exploration were most affected (40% suffered negative job impacts), but the impact across base, industrial, and precious metals was broadly similar for all participants; government employees were least affected but were not immune (10% on reduced hours). The level of concern about future job security due to the COVID-19 crisis varied, with 35% of respondents being more or very con- cerned or having already lost their jobs, 43% had little or no concern, and 22% were moderately concerned. The survey captured the experiences and percep- tions of individual workers, providing a perspective different from information available in corporate statements and official statistics. † Corresponding author: e-mail, murray.hitzman@icrag-centre.org doi:10.5382/SEGnews.2020-122.fea-01