Development of an Iron-and Steel-based Metallurgical industry

Writing about The development of an Iron-and Steel-based metallurgical industry over 30 years ago Percy R. Luney stated:

The high-grade, low-cost mineral deposits presently necessary for the production of iron and steel are being exploited and sold to the industrialized countries of the world. The statement that mineral resource supplies are inexhaustible must be questioned in terms of ultimate benefit to be derived from the production of high-cost, low-grade mineral deposits. While the underdeveloped countries of the world are exporting more and receiving less in terms of quantities of mineral materials, stockpiles of recyclable mineral materials are being accumulated in the industrialized world at a rate which exceeds the loss of mineral materials through product export. The total picture must be critically re-evaluated in light of population stabilization in the industrialized nations and population growth in the industrializing African nations. The exportation of mineral resources should become secondary in importance to supplying the mineral raw material needs of an iron- and steel-based metallurgical industry in sub-Sahara Africa.

Its hard to believe that not much has changed in the intervening decades apart from the actors being largely Asian now rather than Western, time has literally stood still.