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.

Thats 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 its 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

Earths 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 Coppers
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
Earths 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
1064Celcius. 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 Companys

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