From GeoClasses

Week 3: Chapter 13

What is a mineral

A halite unit cell.

• What is a mineral

Uses for minerals

• (table 13.1; Keller, 2005)

Lots of info on minerals and their uses

Resources vs. Reserves

• resource:
  • concentration of naturally occurring material in or on Earth's crust that can be now or potentially be extracted at a profit
• reserve:
  • that portion of a resource that is identified (we know where it is) and is currently available to be legally extracted at a profit

Depletion curve

• (fig. 13.3; Keller, 2005)
  • more on oil and gas reserves later

depletion curve of oil production first proposed by M. King Hubbert in 1956

Types of mineral resources

metal ores

• formed by igneous or hydrothermal processes, contact or regional metamorphism (such as asbestos or talc)

evaporites

• evaporites formed by sedimentary processes

• evaporites formed by biological processes: phosphates and carbonates

Salt mine from Teller Lake (a playa) Australia

salt harvesting on a salt flat in Bolivia

island nation of Nauru (NE of Australia), entirely made of phosphate, was heavily mined to depletion and is only now beginning to reestablish vegetation

human impact on the land

• mine waste

• water pollution

• air pollution
  • (SO2, dust)

• how to recycle waste
  • (Fe, steel, Pb, Al, Cu)

acid mine drainage in the Tinto River from nearby copper mines

air pollution from a power plant in New Mexico, including SO2 prior to filters being installed

abandoned computer monitor littering the sidewalk

'There is no such thing as sustainable development of mineral resources' - but you can substitute alternative technologies that are not mineral-dependent