The development of human civilization ignites a demand for various natural resources. Nowadays, these resources include not only useful minerals, soil, water, air, flora, or fauna, but also natural forces and other environmental assets determining the quality of human life, such as geographic space, landscapes, and microclimates. Among so many categories of natural resources, minerals - which are for the most part non-renewable - often constitute a deciding influence on the level of human well-being. Within the study of the utilization of natural resources, a series of models have been developed which are aimed - mostly in a dynamic mode - at maximizing the level of social well-being determined by the consumption of specific resources. The paper discusses, while recalling selected, established economic theories, the problem of the use and protection of non-renewable mineral resources at the stage of their economic exploitation. The author examines, based on the theory of sustainable development, Hotelling's model and its later modifications of the difficulties in implementing a resource protection policy. The paper approximates a new approach to the concept of mineral resources use in light of the N-person Prisoner's Dilemma. The conclusions were illustrated by simplified cases, conducted with the assumption of an absence of perfect unlimited substitutes.