Minerals are found in many areas of the world and some are more easily available than others. The Earth provides natural resources as necessary minerals that can be used for construction, decoration, gemstones, and many other important physical uses that improve the quality of life. There are minerals that can be found and mined in natural solid form in small or large quantities and some that are found in a mixed environment and must be refined. Much time and research has shown that some minerals may be hazardous and many minerals are crucial to a greater life on earth.
Chalcopyrite, copper, and malachite are the three main minerals used to make copper. Copper is one of the most important natural resources and an important mineral that helps improve quality of life. Copper has many uses for example; heating, cooling, refrigeration, electrical wiring, electronics, power generation, power transmission, automotive production, door hardware, roofing, antimicrobial uses and many more. The top copper mining areas in the world are Chile, USA, Peru, China and Australia. (Copper Mining and Production Wastes).
Chalcopyrite, CuFeS2, is an iron copper sulfide (ore of copper) with a tetragonal crystal system that has be found in Ontario, Canada, the Andes, South Australia (Broken Hill and American cordillera mining). It is found as brass yellow with metallic luster and greenish black streak. Hardness can range from 3.5 to 4 on the mineral moh’s scale. Mining of chalcopyrite requires digging for veins with the mineral. Heavy equipment is used to dig and drill holes around the vein of chalcopyrite. Chalcopyrite is then moved to a refinery to be crushed and smelted. The copper ore is heated in water and the copper sulfide mine...
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..., minerals are all around us and can be found in abundance or in small amounts. The Earth provides crucial minerals so that people on earth can survive and live a better quality of life.
References
Arem, Joel MD. “Malachite Jewelry and Gemstone Information”. 2014. International Gem society. April 1, 2014. www.gemsociety.org
“Copper Mining and Production Wastes”. www.gpa.gov. August 30, 2012.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. April 1, 2012
“Geoscience News and Information”. www.Geology.com. 2014. Geology.com. April 1, 2014
“The Mineral And Gemstone Kingdom Complete Guide to Rocks, Minerals, and Gemstones”. www.minerals.net. 2014. Hershel Friedman and Minerals.net. April 1, 2014.
“Understanding Minerals and Mining through Education”. www.mineralseducationcoalition.org. 2013. Minerals Education Coalition. April1, 2014
Deep within African mines, elusive diamonds lay enveloped in the Earth’s crust. Possessing much influence, beauty, and tension, nature’s hardest known substance causes parallel occurrences of unity and destruction on opposite sides of the globe. Diamonds, derived from the Greek word "adamas", meaning invincible, are formed deep within the mantle, and are composed entirely from carbon. Moreover, only under tremendous amounts of heat and pressure can diamonds form into their preliminary crystal state. In fact, diamonds are formed approximately 150km- 200km below the surface and at radical temperatures ranging from 900-1300 C°. When these extremes meet, carbon atoms are forced together creating diamond crystals. Yet how do these gems, ranking a ten on Moh’s hardness scale, impact the individual lives of millions of people besides coaxing a squeal out of brides-to-be? These colorless, yellow, brown, green, blue, reddish, pink, grey and black minerals are gorgeous in their cut state, but how are these otherwise dull gems recognized and harvested? Furthermore, how and why is bloodshed and violence caused over diamonds in Africa, the supplier of approximately 65% of the world’s diamonds? (Bertoni) The environmental, social, and economic impact of harvesting, transporting, and processing diamonds is crucial because contrary to popular belief, much blood has been spilled over first-world “bling”.
The fortune of silver and gold discovered in Colorado’s mountains were locked inside complex ores consisting of granite, quartz and other metals that rendered them useless, unless they could be separated (Egan. NPS). Miners originally imported stamp mills and Spanish arrastras to extract the gold and silver but both these methods were inefficient and lost upwards of 70 percent of the sought after mineral (NPS). In 1867, chemistry professor Nathanial P. Hill discovered an efficient method called the Swansea process to separate the precious metals and opened the Boston Colorado Smelter in Blackhawk (NPS).
I selected rocks and minerals that are mined in throughout Colorado. Rocks and minerals can be mined underground and some of them are pit mines. I live in Western Colorado where there are several different mining operations of rocks and minerals. Gold, silver, gypsum, and marble mines. I will describe the different mining techniques, economic advantages and disadvantages, as well as how the rock or minerals are shipped.
Minerals play an important role in our day-to-day life but we often not contemplate how the minerals are obtained. Minerals are scattered all over the world just like any other resources. Due to the natural processes of magma flow, hydrothermal gradients, sedimentation, and evaporation, Minerals are concentrated in various areas of the Earth’s crust. Obtaining these minerals for human use involves four general steps:
Where the minerals that America uses came from? Americans use and waste large amounts of substance and material every day. Most people disregard and ignore the places where this material may come from. Putting little to no time into researching on the subject, makes it difficult to ever figure out and appreciate the stories and history behind our beloved substance and consumption of it. But actually putting the effort of working and looking into it, someone may be pleasantly surprised at the amount of backstory on it, and may find it rather interesting. So if someone were to say, look into the history of the Berkeley pit. They would most likely find plenty of sources explaining how it supplied copper and many minerals for the U.S. for years. Of course anyone who already knew information on the pit could tell you its amazing and introcut stories of how it came to be, and how it has been doing over the years. The pit is a “toxic attraction” in the town of Butte. Being the town’s income and source of tourism. Most people in Butte Montana, the home of the pit, could tell how amazing it is.
As previously mentioned, the modern techniques used for mining are extremely different than those of prehistoric times. In the early history of mining, ancient peoples dug for materials close to the earth surface with make shift shovels and pics; as one could imagine, this...
The beautiful and unique gemstone, tanzanite has afascinating history. Read all about it and trace the origins of this rare gemstone.
As discussed above, there are different varieties of gypsum (five basic forms); there is alabaster, satin spar, selenite, rock gypsum, and gypsite. Alabaster is fine-grained, satin spar is very fibrous, selenite is transparent (the more gemstone looking version of gypsum), rock gypsum is the most
Staurolite is easy to spot amongst other stones – it has a very distinct, cross like shape, which was created by nature as it developed. It can be red, brown, almost black, or opaque, and sometimes has a white streak in it. It’s comprised of iron, aluminum and silicon: Fe2+2Al9O6(SiO4)4(O,OH)2 . It forms when shale is changed due to the earths high pressure temperature and conditions where it’s found. Speaking of where it’s found . . . one of its most productive places is in Patrick County, Virginia. It’s so prominent there that the state named a state park after it: Fairy Stone State Park (named after the folklore and legends that surround the stone, which I will get to shortly). It is also very abundant in Fannin County, Georgia.
The rock salt, is easily one of the most used and consumed mineral in the average everyday life. From seasoning food to helping a sore throat, salt is used without the thought of its effects on many wars, cultures, government, religions, and the economy. Author Mark Kurlansky, informs the reader of the history of salt by taking them through different cultures and time periods in the book Salt: A World History. He touches on different areas around the world and how they used salt for their own needs. From being one of the most wanted rocks in the world, to easily being purchased at the supermarket, salt has gone through a long and tiring journey.
Tappert, R. and Tappert, M.C. (2011). Diamonds in Nature: A Guide to Rough Diamonds. (pp.1-14):
Water is a natural resource in the world and due to mining it is becoming scarce. Surrounding communities are forced to relocate due to the mining companies operating in their area and using their drinking water. Diamond mining uses large quantities of water and thus ends up polluting the water or dehydrating the environment around it; in turn causing soil erosion due to the dryness of the ground.
Aluminum is the most abundant metallic constituent in the crust of the earth; only the nonmetals oxygen and silicon are more abundant. Aluminum is never found as a free metal; commonly as aluminum silicate or as a silicate of aluminum mixed with other metals such as sodium, potassium, iron, calcium, and magnesium. These silicates are not useful ores, for it is chemically difficult, and therefore an expensive process, to extract aluminum from them. bauxite an impure h...
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.