Using Mineral Resources

Minerals are the source of gemstones, metals, and a variety of materials used to make many products

Food

Makeup

Vitamins

Gemstones

• Gemstones – hard, colorful, usually rare, minerals that have a brilliant or glassy luster.– Once a gemstone is cut and polished = GEM– Jewelry – Decoration

…but also– Mechanical parts for grinding/polishing

• Metals• Some minerals are the sources for aluminum,

iron, copper, or silver– Tools– Machinery– Cars– Light bulb filaments– Aluminum foil– Building steel

…the list is endless

• Metals are typically not as hard as gemstones

• Metals can be…– Stretched into wire– Flattened into sheets– Hammered– Molded

Other important mineral uses…

• Medicine

• Food

• Fertilizer

• Building materials

• Optical instruments

• What optical instrument do scientists use all the time…?

• Quartz used in making glass (for electronic equipment, glassware or watches)

• Gypsum used to make wallboard, cement, stucco

• Talc talcum powder

• Ore – a rock that contains a metal or other useful mineral that can be mined and sold at a profit.

• Prospecting – A prospector searches (prospects) for an ore deposit.– Geologists are ore prospectors

• Three Mine Types:

• Strip

• Open pit

• Shaft

Strip Mines

Open Pit Mines

Shaft Mining