Minerals and Rock Resources

Minerals are taken out of ore deposits

What is ore?

• Ore – a rock in which a valuable or useful metal occurs and there is enough of it to be worth mining

• Examples: iron ore, copper ore, etc.

Examples of Metals obtained from Ores

• Aluminum (in bauxite rock) – vehicles• Iron (in iron ore) - appliances & vehicles• Metals for conductors or semi-conductors• Gems, gold, and silver – jewelry• Lead from galena (PbS)• Copper (Cu) from malachite and azurite• Zinc from sphalerite (ZnS)

When a mine will make money?

• Enough precious mineral in the ore• World demand for the mineral• Energy cost to take it out of the ground/processing• Human/labor cost• Distance to processing or market• Environmental cost (including remediation)

Fig 12.6 a: Copper & molybdenum deposits in Americas

Types of mines

Surface – when the mineral is close to the surface

e.g. copper, diamond, gold, nickel, tin, zinc

Underground – mineral is too deep to be mined on the surface

e.g. sulfur, lead, silver

Impacts of mines

• Can change the landscape completely or only a bit

• Old & abandoned mines can collapse

• Waste rock can have heavy metals in it that pollute water

• Processing can pollute air

Collapse of land in old copper mine, Arizona

Subsidence pits over abandoned underground coal mines in Wyoming

Bingham Canyon copper mine

Successful mine reclamation

Waste rock with harmful metals

Ekati diamond mine in NWT

Largest copper mine - SA