MINING 101

Mining 101

Part One

Have you used any of these lately?

School Bus?

Cereal?

Bicycle or Skateboard?

Car?

Alarm Clock?

Pencil or Computer?

Stove, Microwave, Cupboards, Countertops?

Coins?

Video Games?

Musical Instruments?

Toothbrush and Toothpaste?

Cellphone

Flatware or Television?

Do the items in the photographs have anything in

common?

Thousands of things you use every day are made from rocks

and minerals.

If you guessed “rocks and minerals,” you are right!

That’s a lot of rocks and minerals!How do you think we get all those rocks and

minerals?

MINING 101

Part 2

If you said “Mining,” you are right!

A mine is a place where rocks and

minerals of value are extracted.

Government Permits are needed before and during all mining processes

The first phase of mining is called

EXPLORATION.

What happens during exploration?

Satellites, airplanes and helicopters can be used to help

find mineral deposits.

A geologist is a scientist who

studies the Earth and it’s processes.

Radioactive minerals like uranium may be found with a Geiger counter.

If an area looks promising, a drill is moved to the site.

The drill goes deep into the Earth’s crust removing long

cylinders of rock called cores.

Geologic maps are created.

What about the environment?

Before a mine can be opened, a complete

environmental study is done so the land can be rehabilitated during

and after mining.

Environmental protection throughout the mining process

What about people?

What about people?

Mining Towns

Ketchikan, Alaska

Mining provides resources to remote locations:

Transportation

Education

Housing

Jobs

For ExampleBattle Mountain Trades Program

Newmont Mining Corporation

High school students learned

building and selling skills.

An African Project

AngloGold Ashanti

Create medical programs improving

the quality of health for people living in areas

near their mining operations.

PART 3

MINING 101

There are two basic types of Mining.

Underground Mining

Surface Mining

Surface Mining

Kennecott Utah Copper’s Bingham Canyon Mine

Two-story high haul trucks can carry hundreds of tons

of ore.

Surface mining

Albert Frei & Sons Sand Quarry in Idaho Springs, Colorado

Rock of Ages Granite Quarry in Barre, Vermont

Underground Mining

Nickel Miners Underground Drill

Underground Mining

Longwall coal mining cuts a slice from the long wall.

Notice the safety gear that these

miners wear everyday.

Miner Safety

All mining companies have extensive safety training. No one can go underground without it. Miners must be certified and demonstrate safety knowledge.

Extraction is the process of removing mineral

resources from the Earth’s crust.

Drilling to set charges for a blast.

Carefully controlled blasting breaks up the rock.

Blasted ore is hauled to the crusher.

Crushers/grinders break up the ore to the size of small pebbles

or sand.

Processing

Minerals are different so many different types of processing are needed to remove them from the

rock. Following are just a few processes.

Milling

This rock contains gold. Milling is the process of separating the desired mineral from the unwanted rock (called gangue.) See if you can find the specks of gold.

Concentration and Flotation

Some minerals are separated by washing, flotation or magnetic separation. Here a combination of water, chemicals, air and agitation make desired mineral particles float to the top of the bubbles.

Smelting

Smelting uses high heat and chemicals to remove base metals and impurities from concentrates. Smelting furnaces can reach temperatures above 1064°Celcius. What would that number be in Fharenheit?

Leaching

Ariel view of a leach pad at a copper mine in Morenci, Arizona. These pads are the size of several football fields. This one is being stacked with crushed ore.

Electrowinning

Starter sheets are lowered into a solution. An electrical charge passes through causing copper ions to stick to the sheets.

How much land does Mining use in the US?

Land used by Agriculture

Land used by 80 Years of Mining

Nearly 50% has been reclaimed.

Washington D.C.

ReclamationModern mines reclaim and rehabilitate the land during

and after mining is completed, returning the land to useful purposes.

Reclaimed by Starvaggi Industries in West Virginia.

Before After

ForkCreek Coal Mining Co., West Virginia

Before After

Homestake Mining Company’s McLaughlin Gold Mine in California

Before After

MINING 101

THE END

Resources

AngloGold Ashanti, www.anglogold.co.za

Colorado Mining Association, www.coloradomining.org

Mining Basics, www.miningbasics.com

Minerals Education Coalition, www.MineralsEducationCoalition.org

Mining Engineering Magazine, SME, www.miningengineeringmagazine.com

National Mining Association, www.nma.org

Newmont Mining Corporation, www.newmont.com

Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, www.smenet.org

Women in Mining Education Foundation, www.womeninmining.org

U.S. Department of Agriculture, www.usda.gov

U.S. Geological Survey, www.usgs.gov

Christensen, John W. and Teri L., Global Science: Earth/Environmental Systems Science, Kendall Hunt. Dubuque, Iowa. 7th ed. 2009