Homogenous naturally occurring substance with a definable internal structure is called mineral. Minerals are found in varied forms in nature, ranging from the hardest diamond to the softest talc. Minerals are usually found in “ores”.

Rocks are combination of homogenous substances called minerals. Some rocks for instance limestone, consist of a single mineral only, but majority of the rock consist of several minerals in varying proportions.

Metallic mineral are those minerals which can be melted to obtain new products.

Non-metallic minerals are those which do not yield new products on melting.

Mining can result in a number of adverse effects on the environment. Surface mining of coal completely eliminates existing vegetation, destroys the genetic soil profile, displaces or destroys wildlife and habitat, degrades air quality, alters current land uses, and to some extent permanently changes the general topography of the area mined.

Mining companies can profitably extract most minerals only where they occur in large deposits. Industries first develop the highest-grade and most easily minable ores. When these are depleted, mining companies turn to lower-grade and harder-to-mine ores. Many such deposits require advanced technology and large amounts of energy to mine. Some take so much energy to mine and refine that they cannot be profitably developed. Deposits of minerals are unevenly distributed around the world. This uneven distribution of minerals has played a major role in history.

Energy is a fundamental component to our daily lives, and everyday we use energy or power in some form or another. The law of conservation of energy states that energy can neither be created or destroyed. What this means is that as energy is used, it does not disappear, but rather, is converted into another form of energy.

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