Transcript Minerals are valuable resources

Industry:
Minerals can be found in a lot of the
products we use in every day life:
• Vehicles (metals)
• Glass (quartz and feldspar)
• Electronics (silicon and metals)
Arts:
Minerals are valued for their
beauty:
• Jewelry (gemstones and metals)
• Paint (pigment)
Minerals form through a natural
process where atoms of elements join
together and crystals form.
1. Evaporating water - when the water
evaporates, the atoms that make up
the substances that were dissolved in
the water join to form crystals
2. Hot water cools – the hot water dissolves
minerals as it moved through Earth’s
crust. When that water cools, the
minerals separate and crystallize again.
3. Molten rock cools – Magma and lava
describe hot rock that contains many
atoms similar to those found in minerals.
These atoms join together when the hot
rock cools to form mineral crystals
4.Heat and pressure – the bonds between
atoms break and form in new ways to
create different minerals.
5.Organisms create minerals – sea creatures
can create calcite and carbonate to form
their shells. Humans produce apatite
which is a main mineral in bones and
teeth.
• Minerals have to be taken out of the
ground before they can be used
– Some are close to the surface
– Some are very deep
• Most minerals are found in rocks
– Rocks that contain enough mineral to
make any $$$ are called ores
Copper ore
Used to dig up minerals that are close to the surface.
• Panning - because gold and minerals like it are dense
it doesn’t get swept away by water currents.
• Strip mining - the land is stripped of all the surface
life (plants, soil, other rocks) and then dig out the
ore.
• Open-pit mining - miners clear off top layer and then
use explosives to blast the layer of rock. As they
create a bigger pit, they create roads for the trucks
to carry the ore to the surface.
Used for ores far
below the surface
of the Earth.
• Miners drill down or
into a mountain and
create a level
passage way.
• From that main
passage, they can
drill or blast to get
at the ore.