Platinum as an Invaluable Earth Resource
The advent of the Industrial Revolution sparked worldwide large-scale use of minerals in the mid 18th and early 19th centuries, as well as continued growth during the next several hundred years. Over a period of 150 years from 1750-1900, global mineral use saw an increase of roughly 1000 percent while the world population merely doubled. Since 1900, mineral production has increased roughly 1300 percent (Young 6), and the world has become completely dependent upon the various uses of limited mineral resources. One mineral which has provided numerous uses for several diverse industrial markets is the valuable metal platinum (Pt).
Platinum is the most well known and widely used member of the six platinum metals of Group VIII, Period 6, of the periodic table. In order of increasing atomic weight, the platinum group metals are ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), palladium (Pd), osmium (Os), iridium (Ir), and the focus metal, platinum (Pt). Excluding osmium, all the aforementioned elements are silvery white in color.
According to historical record, gold artifacts containing platinum have been dated to approximately 700 BC; however, the presence of platinum in these materials was most likely accidental, or unknown. Similarly, 16th century Jesuits made reference to unidentified metallic pebbles contained within gold bars, making them brittle and hard to refine. These pebbles were most likely platinum based metals. Despite early sightings of platinum group metals, the pure, malleable platinum known and used today was not discovered until 1789 by French physicist P.F. Chabaneau. Upon its discovery, Chabaneau felt it worthy to present before Pope Pius VI in the form of a chalice, or trophy.
Geogra...
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...bstitute for such precious metals as gold and silver, and demand will certainly increase in this market in the following years. Platinum reserves are steady and do not display any shortage of the valuable metal in the near or distant future. For these reasons and more, platinum will continue to be an important metal in the lives of humans now, and in the future, claiming more market demand and industry use.
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Mining the Earth. Young, John E. World Watch Paper 109, July 1992
Silver has always been around but it wasn't until the 1500's to the mid 1700's that the
-------------------------------------------------------------------- The reactivity series is a table to show which metals are most reactive to the least reactive. Potassium is known as the most reactive and platinum the least. --------------------------------------------------------------
Taconite mining has become more popular ever since the rock has become rare. Taconite was once considered “waste rock,” but is currently really valuable. Since the Gogebic Iron Range has about three-fourths of all the taconite in the nation people from all over the country want to take over and start mining. Although taconite mining would do some good for the community, such as creating tons of jobs and boosting the economy for awhile, there are too many risks. Taconite mining has a negative effect on the environment and health.
Mr. Cronstedt discovered nickel in a mineral called niccolite. He originally planned to extract copper from this new mineral but got none at all. This is why nickel, at first, was called "false copper". Instead, Cronstedt got a silvery-white metal, which was eventually used for other things.
Objectives • To evaluate the difficulty of mining and reclamation To calculate costs, expenses, income, and profit from a hands-on mining exercise. • To evaluate the effectiveness of reclamation and its added costs to mining. To describe the increasing rarity of some non-renewable mineral resources. Introduction Minerals play an important role in our day-to-day life, but we often do not contemplate how the minerals are obtained. Minerals are scattered all over the world, just like any other resource.
It ranks amongst the rarest of metals. Consider this: for every 15 to 20 ounces of gold extracted, only a single ounce of platinum is mined. Unlike gold, which doesn't work well in its purest form, platinum is used in jewelry at 90–95% purity. Gold tarnishing is the slight corrosion of the gold surface and is evident as a dark discoloration of the gold item, also called a tarnish film. Gold alone or pure gold does not combine easily with oxygen so it stays shiny, it does not rust nor tarnish, again, that is pure gold. The magnet test is also a good test to determine if gold is real or fake. If your gold item is attracted to a magnet, it is definitely not real gold. Still, this doesn't mean that there is no gold in your item, just that it is not made with a substantial amount of gold. Gold is most often found in quartz rock. When quartz is found in gold bearings areas, it is possible that gold will be found as well. Quartz may be found as small stones in river beds or in large seams in hillsides. The white color of quartz makes it easy to spot in many
The unique set of elements known as the alkaline earth metals are key components to humanity and life as we know it. Without them, many things that we both love and need would be gone. These remarkably diverse yet very similar elements that make up the alkaline earth metals family are: Beryllium (Be), Magnesium (Mg), Calcium (Ca), Strontium (Sr), Barium (Ba), and Radium (Ra). Although this family is often overshadowed by the infamous alkali metals, you will soon learn how spectacular and brilliant these metals really are and their value to human life.
Lins, C., & Horwitz, E. (2007). Sustainability in the Mining Sector. Retrieved November 6, 2017, from http://www.fbds.org.br/IMG/pdf/doc-295.pdf
Though it has had many negative impacts on the environment in the past, mining is a vital industry completely necessary to our economy and lives. Nearly every item we use or encounter in our day to day lives is mined or contains mined products. Without the excavation of such materials things like computers, televisions, large building structures, electricity, and cars would not be possible. Virtually every technological and medical advance uses minded materials, without which millions would suffer. Some examples of minerals in the home include the telephone which is made from as many as 42 different minerals, including aluminum, beryllium, coal, copper, gold, iron, silver, and talc. A television requires over 35 different minerals, and more than 30 minerals are needed to make a single personal computer. Without boron, copper, gold and quartz, your digital alarm clock would not work. Every American uses an average 47,000 pounds of newly mined materials each year, which is higher than all other countries with the exception of Japan, which is a staggering figure representative of our dependence and need for mined minerals. Coal makes up more than half of nation’s electricity, and will continue to be the largest electrical supplier into 2020 & accounting for some 95 percent of the nation's fossil energy reserves – nine of every ten short-tons of coal mined in the United States is used for electricity generation. As the population of the world grows more mineral resources must be exploited through mining in order to support the rising demand for such products. Though it may present a hazard to the environment and those physically located nears the mines, the materials extracted from mines...
Uranium was discovered by Martin Heinrich Klaproth, a German chemist, in the mineral pitchblende (primarily a mix of uranium oxides) in 1789.Klaproth, as well as the rest of the scientific community, believed that the substance he extracted from pitchblende was pure uranium, it was actually uranium dioxide (UO2). After noticing that 'pure' uranium reacted oddly with uranium tetrachloride (UCl4), Radioactivity was first discovered in 1896 when Antoine Henri Becquerel, a French physicist, detected it from a sample of uranium. Today, uranium is obtained from uranium ores such as pitchblende, uraninite , carnotite and autunite as well as from phosphate rock , lignite (brown coal) and monazite sand . Since there is little demand for uranium metal, uranium is usually sold in the form of sodium diuranate , also known as yellow cake, or triuranium octoxide).
Rio Tinto has the people, the capabilities and the resources to apply a world’s hunger for minerals and metals that are used in the everyday life, in the diverse of products – for the mobile phones to cars.
The Periodic Table of Elements is commonly used today when studying elements. This table’s history begins in ancient times when Greek scientists first started discovering different elements. Over the years, many different forms of the periodic table have been made which set the basis for the modern table we use today. This table includes over 100 elements and are arranged by groups and periods. Groups being vertical columns and periods being horizontal columns. With all of the research conducted over the years and the organization of this table, it is easy to use when needed.
Mining is the process or industry of obtaining minerals from the earth. Topics in this paper I’ll be specifically discussing are pros and cons of mining, structures of a mine, mining in general, California gold rush, diamonds in Africa, and comparison of diamond and gold mines.
"A periodic table is an arrangement of elements in which the elements are separated into groups based on a set of repeating properties." Basically it shows us all known elements in the world. For one to read the periodic table he should beware that the atomic number comes first in the square , and referring to the atomic number its the number of protons found in the nucleus of an atom. Following the atomic number is the symbol, which is usually the abbreviation of the element's name. For example Carbon is referred to as " C". Then, the element’s name is shown right after the symbol. Lastly, there's the mass number, which is the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom. So simply for us to find the number of protons we automatically
In our days, mining for resources is inevitable. The resources we need are valuable in everyday life. Such resources mined up are coal, copper, gold, silver, and sand. However, mining poses environmental risks that can degrade the quality of soil and water, which can end up effecting us humans if not taken care of and many of the damages are irreversible once they have occurred.