1. Looking Back…. What do you remember about minerals? What are they?
Where are they found?
What is the difference between a rock and a mineral?

2. Mineral Resources & Mining

3. Mineral Resources
Naturally occurring solid with a definite chemical composition and crystalline structure that is formed through inorganic processes
Unevenly distributed throughout world – some places have more of one kind or another
Three groups:
Metallic mineral – ex. iron & copper
Nonmetallic mineral – ex. salt & clay
Energy resources – ex. coal & oil

4. Metallic Resources
Resources from which ductile, malleable, opaque and reflective metals that are also good heat and electricity conductors
Yield new products when melted
Considered abundant when > 0.1 % (Fe, Al, Mg)
Considered scarce at < 0.1% (Ni, Cu, Zn)
Most metallic ore deposits are a result of plate tectonic activity

5. Non-Metallic Resources
Don’t yield new products when melted
Glassy, dull or waxy
Construction materials:
Sand, gravel, limestone, gypsum
Agriculture:
Phosphate, nitrate, potassium
Industrial:
Rock, salt, sulfur, clay, gypsum
Household and Business products:
Glass sand, diatomite

6. Energy Resources Organic! Includes: Form from remains of living things
Consist of hydrocarbons
Stored energy
Includes:
Coal - formed in process of carbonization – plants debris buried in swamps/mud, becomes peat then coal
Petroleum & Natural Gas - formed from remains of marine organisms and plants under heat & pressure

7. How Minerals Form Minerals form in MANY ways Four main processes:
Cooling magma
Evaporation
Precipitation
Heat & Pressure
Sometimes evaporation &
precipitation are grouped
together and other variations referenced

8. Minerals from Magma Crystallization depends on: Cooling rate
faster = smaller crystals
Slower = larger crystals
Gas in magma
Chemical composition of magma
Melting can cause differentiation based on specific heat of different minerals.
Examples: orthoclase & quartz

9. Minerals from Solutions
Supersaturated solutions of dissolved minerals
Excess mineral solute is deposited on a surface or water evaporates
“Veins” can form when solutions flow through cracks
Lode: Hot mineral solutions in cracks in rocks
Examples: Halite & calcite.

10. Minerals from the Water Cycle
Dissolved minerals can settle at bottom of ocean or lake
Water evaporates, leaves behind mineral deposits
Salt water is the major source of minerals formed by evaporation (90%)
Examples: gypsum & salts

11. Minerals from Heat & Pressure
Heat & pressure can cause:
Recrystalization
Chemical reactions
Examples: garnet and corundum

12. Minerals & Plate Tectonics
Some minerals produced by convergent plates
Heat near subduction zones can produce:
Iron
Ores
Metals:
Copper
Silver
Gold
Lead
Zinc
Tin
Not just where plates meet now, but in the past!

13. Link to Mineral Distribution Maps @ USGS

14. People Use Minerals
The average person consumes or uses 40,000 pounds of minerals every year.
Basic and essential raw materials in our daily lives, and are vital for economic, social and technological development. 
Over the course of a lifetime, an individual will use more than:
1,050 pounds of lead
1,050 pounds of zinc
1,750 pounds of copper
4,550 pounds of aluminum
91,000 pounds of iron and steel
360,500 pounds of coal
one million pounds of industrial minerals such as limestone, clay, and gravel.

15. Ores Mineral resources mined for profit
A deposit in the Earths crust of one or more valuable minerals
Primary Ores: deep veins and deposits – often rich in sulfur
Weathered (supergene) ores – weathered near surface, sulfur leached out – cleaner and cheaper to mine and process – in a “contaminated” layer

16. Mining of Ores Weathered Ores: Contaminated layer near surface
Sulfur leached out
Cheap to mine & process
Primary Ores:
Deep veins & deposits
Rich in sulfur (impurities)
Deeper ores are expensive to mine and process
Sulfur is a problem especially in coal because it contributes to acid rain!

17. Mining Process Start by removing the Overburden
Material that lies above an area
Must be removed prior to surface mining
May be replaced after mining(reclaimation)

18. Waste Material Gangue: Tailings: Worthless leftovers
Surrounds or is mixed with mineral or ore
Has other minerals mixed with it
Tailings:
Piles of waste left behind after extraction
Contains gangue

19. Method: Open-pit Mining
Machines dig holes and remove ores, sand, gravel, and stone.
Toxic groundwater can accumulate at the bottom.

20. Method: Area Strip Mining
Earth movers strips away overburden, and giant shovels removes mineral deposit.
Often leaves highly erodible hills of rubble called spoil banks.

21. Method: Mountaintop Removal
Machinery removes the tops of mountains to expose minerals – often used for coal
Heavy equipment used to move overburden downhill during the mining of coal
The resulting waste rock and dirt are dumped into the streams and valleys below.

22. Subsurface Mining Methods
Include:
Drift
Slope
Shaft
Hard Rock
Borehole
Fracking

23. Mining Reclamation
The word “reclamation” comes from “reclaim”— meaning to take something back. 
The process of returning land to its original or better condition before mining
Without reclamation habitats are permanently destroyed, erosion increases.

24. Activity: Cookie Mining
Purpose: The purpose of this activity is to simulate a mining operation.
Land area will be purchased from the bank.
Land area will be surveyed and quantified.
Mining equipment will be purchased from the bank.
A mining operation will occur, with the cost for each minute of the mining operation & reclamation period calculated into operating costs.
A fine will be assessed for any part of the land area that is not successfully reclaimed.
Ore that is mined will be sold to determine profitability of the mining operation.

25. Review… Hot mineral solutions in cracks in rock are called:
Supergene ores
Crystal
Lode
Gangue

26. Activity: Producing Ores
Sources of Industrial Ores:
Primary Ores: Deep veins and deposits
Weathered Ores: near surface
Recycled Materials: easily refined and processed