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?
If you guessed “rocks and
minerals,” you are right!
Thousands of things you use
every day are made from rocks
and minerals.
That’s a lot of rocks and
How dominerals!
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 Example
Battle 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.
MINING 101
PART 3
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
Washington D.C.
Land used by 80
Years of Mining
Nearly 50% has been
reclaimed.
Reclamation
Modern 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