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Mine!
Mine!!
Mined. |
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Each year, we consume 700,000,000 tonnes of metal worldwide |
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"Gold is for the
mistress—silver for the maid—
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade."
"Good!" said the Baron, sitting in his hall,
"But Iron—Cold Iron—is master of them all."
—Rudyard Kipling |
 ID YOU KNOW that in the last 100 years, we have
mined more minerals than in the entire history of mankind before that? BUT THEN, Over 99
percent of the Earth's surface has never been mined. So why worry? Right? Wrong!!!
Minerals are actually limited in supply. That’s because though they may be
everywhere, only in a few places are they concentrated enough to make them valuable. In
the past, we could find enough mineral resources on the earth’s surface. This is not
the case today.
Reality 1: Minerals are becoming more difficult to mine. Reality 2:
Environmental impacts are increasing. Reality 3: More energy is being required to
extract one kilo of raw material. Reality 4: More waste is being created. Reality
5: Once a mine has been mined, it cannot be replaced.
On an average, one cubic kilometre of rock contains 239 million metric tons of
Aluminium, 149 million metric tons of iron,
...but the problem is that most of these minerals
are present in concentrations too low to make their extraction viable
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If it ain’t living,
it’s a mineral!
Everything that man uses on Earth which isn’t a
plant or an animal is a mineral. There is simply no exception. Mineral resources are found
on and in the Earth's crust and minerals are divided into metals like iron and gold,
non-metals like salt, sand and clay and fuels like oil gas and coal. And all our
activities revolve around these.
The only exception to mining in our daily lives is
agriculture, but even that would not be possible without modern farming techniques which
cannot be done without minerals.
Stone Age to Space
Age
Minerals have directed the progress of mankind and early ages have been named after
metals. At first, man carved simple tools and weapons out of stones and that was called
the Stone Age. Then came the age of
the metals. In the Bronze and Iron Ages, man made his implements out of
metals dug from the Earth's crust. After that, the more sophisticated our society became
and more advanced our technology got, the more we relied on more and more minerals.
Minerals powered the Industrial Age of
the eighteenth century and the Space Age of
the twentieth century.
How Did They Get There?
Thanks to all the volcanic activity inside
the Earth, rocks are melting and cooling. These processes can concentrate metals such as
copper, nickel, and tin in a rock mass along with other common minerals like quartz and
feldspar.
Other natural processes can also concentrate mineral resources into deposits. Moving water deposits
sand and gravel along stream and riverbanks and ocean beaches. Water erodes gold-bearing
rock from mountains and deposits gold in gravels along some rivers and streams.
And millions of years ago, billions of dead plants accumulated in swamps. Time and heat transformed
them into coal. Oil and natural gas, on the other hand, have come from algae, spores and
plant material.
Abundant or Scarce, it's a
Problem
More than 3,500 different minerals have been identified in
the earth’s crust.
Prominent among them are metals. The rocks inside the earth that contain the metals are
first mined, then refined, or extracted from the rock.
For some metals, this process can be very expensive. It can also be very complicated.
For example, aluminum is the most abundant metal to be found, but it never occurs in a
pure form. Its always bonded to several other elements and must be put through a very
energy-intensive process.
Copper, on the other hand, is scarce. So lots of land has to be moved and lots of
energy and water used to extract it. That's why mining companies target sparsely populated
areas or weak communities who can't protest too much.
Man started mining for copper 9000 years ago |
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