Transcript MINERAL RESOURCES

MINERAL RESOURCES
The earth’s crust is the storehouse
of all materials that we can use
“If you can’t grow it, you gotta mine it”
Mineral Resource
• Mineral Resource – earth’s storehouse of
useful minerals that can be extracted
• Basically, all the minerals in the crust that
can be realistically dug up for human use
Mineral Reserves
• Reserve – the already identified mineral
deposits that can be recovered profitably
• How is this different from mineral resources?
• They are still in the ground, but have not
been dug up because they don’t need to be
extracted at this time
• (the market may already be flooded with
these elements or there may be other
deposits that are easier to get to at this time)
Did you say Oar or Ore?
• Ores – useful metallic minerals that can be
mined for a profit
• Metals include things such as Iron,
Magnesium, Cobalt, Nickel, Titanium,
Manganese, Zinc, etc…
$$$ Chah-Ching $$$
• How do we know if a mineral resource is
going to be profitable for a mining
company to dig it out of the ground?
• It must be found in concentrations above
its average crustal abundance
• The value of the mineral must outweigh
the cost of digging it up
Example for the CEOs
• If the average crustal abundance of
cinnabar is 0.93% and you discover a
chunk of rock which contains 2.5%
cinnabar, should you mine it?
• Absolutely!!!
• ps – cinnabar is a mineral that contains
the liquid metal mercury (HgS)
Is it worth it?
• Digging it up is more complicated than all that
though…
• First you have to find the deposits
• Then you have to extract them
• Then you have to transport them
• Then, isolate the elements you want
• And then you have to pay everyone involved
• Finally, you can then sell the elements for profit
And one more thing to consider
• Not only does the crustal % of the deposit
play into the equation of a profit
• But, also economic demand (do we all of a
sudden need more of a particular mineral)
• Extracting technology (are we waiting for
new tools to get at harder to reach places)
How do we mine resources?
• Surface Mining – Above ground mines that
are nothing more than a big hole in the
ground…sometimes called open-pit mines
• Underground mines – exactly that; mines
where the surface is not touched and all
the mined material comes up via railways,
shafts, and elevators
Some BIG Toys of Open-Pit Mines
Huge Earth Mover
World’s Largest Dump Truck
Some more BIG Toys
World’s Largest Dragline
The Bucket of the Dragline
Large CATS at Work
An Open-Pit Mine
OK, Let’s go Underground
Remote controlled
continuous miner
Longwall Mining Machine
Diagram of an Underground Mine
Do they just leave a hole there?
STEP 1:
Mining in
progress
STEP 2:
Empty Mine
with rain
water in it
STEP 3:
Reclaiming
begins
STEP 4:
Reclaiming
complete
Mining & Reclaiming Together
Mining & Reclaiming Together
Gems
• Gemstones - Minerals
that are beautiful, rare,
valuable, polished, and
cut into specific
reflecting shapes
• Gems are nothing
more than pretty, pure
minerals
Rough Sapphire Stones
Cut &
Polished
Sapphires
To Review:
• Know the difference between a resource, a
reserve, and an ore
• Several factors go into determining whether
or not a mineral will be profitable to mine:
location, technology, supply/demand, size
and percentage of deposit
• Gemstones are minerals that are rare, pretty,
polished, and cut