PRACTICAL USES OF MINERALS

Minerals and Human Development

The first production of mineral-based fire strikers date back to 500 000 years ago, during the

time of the Homo erectus. This is even before Homo sapiens became expert fire starters
40,000 to 50,000 years ago.

Minerals were used during the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. More than 30 000 years

ago, our ancestors created stone tools from fine-grained rocks such as flint. Around 30 000

B.C., metals like copper, silver, lead, and zinc were extracted from ores, which were

typically used in forming alloys. From the extraction of these metals, smelting methods were

developed which led to the extraction of one of the most important metals, which is iron.

Home and Personal Uses of Minerals

Minerals are found in many places. These are present in rocks, in the oceans, and even in

the food that we eat. In fact, you may have already encountered a mineral in your food and

ingested it without even noticing.

For example, the source of rock salt which is the mineral halite is one of the essential

minerals that we always use at home. It makes food tastier and brings out the flavor of what

you are eating. Imagine food without salt. Regardless of presentation, food that is supposed

to be savory but has no salt will still taste bland. On the other hand, minerals contained

innately in food such as iron, calcium, sodium, and zinc are not considered as true

minerals by mineralogists.

Electronics, Infrastructure, and Manufacturing

The uses of minerals are not only limited to home purposes. Other minerals are also

important components of electronics, infrastructure, and manufacturing. Without these

minerals, modern structures and technologies are impossible to create. Some examples of

minerals together with the materials where they can be found are listed in the table below.

Health and Medicine

Minerals are also used in the medical field. Examples of these minerals are: barium, a

helpful additive to medicine in X-rays of the digestive system; or iron which is used to treat
anemia. Also, deficiencies in some minerals can have adverse health effects. Table 3 below

shows some examples of the applications of minerals in health and medicine.

Precious Minerals and Other Uses

Some minerals are used as gemstones and are valued for their rarity and beauty. Minerals

such as diamond, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and opals are the components of most

jewelries. Rubies and sapphires are composed of aluminum oxide. Emeralds are a form of

the mineral beryl. Quartz, in certain forms, is also considered semi-precious. Watch straps

are sometimes made from gold or silver. Diamond, a form of carbon, is considered as the

most precious mineral. It is also the hardest mineral (10 on the Mohs Scale). Though

commonly used for jewelry, some uncut diamonds are placed as additives for metal cutters

FINDING AND MINING MINERALS

Four Groups of Mineral Deposits

Mineral deposits are aggregates of minerals present in high concentration. Regardless of

whether it has high economic value or none, an accumulation of minerals are still

considered mineral deposits. However, when it is economically valuable, it is called ore

deposit.

Energy Resources

Energy resources can be further divided into fossil fuels and nuclear fuels. Fossil fuels include natural
gas, coal, oil shale, tar sand and oil while nuclear fuels include thorium and

uranium.

Metal Resources

Metal resources include structural metals such as iron, copper, and aluminum, as well as

economic metals such as gold and platinum. These resources also include technological

metals such as lithium and rare earth metals

Industrial Mineral Resources

Industrial mineral resources include commodities such as salt, potash, and sand. These

minerals are widely used in the field of construction, chemical industries and even
agriculture.

Essential Resources

Essential minerals are minerals that pertain to those needed by living organisms. These

minerals are found in soil and water. One good example of an essential resource mineral is

zinc that is naturally present in water and soil.

Mineral Exploration

In the lithosphere, minerals are present everywhere but usually in minute amounts.
Therefore, high quality ore should be located in a small area for mining to be profitable.

Searching for valuable ore is called mineral exploration.

Remember that ore deposits are considered economically. Its profitability depends on the

presence of high concentration of ore minerals. Grade refers to the concentration of the

valuable minerals in an ore deposit. The minimum concentration required to profitably

extract the ore is called cut-off grade.

Most ore deposits are found in mixtures with minerals called gangue minerals or minerals

that have no commercial value. For example, quartz (SiO2) is a common gangue mineral

that is usually associated with several metal deposits and is discarded as a waste product.

However, when quartz is considered as a pure deposit, it becomes valuable in making glass

and other profitable uses.

The technology nowadays provides a means to search for high quality ore without doing

the actual mining. Various exploration techniques were used to assess ore deposits prior to

mining. These techniques include remote sensing, geophysical methods, and

geochemical methods.

Geochemical Methods

Merging the idea of the chemical properties of minerals and geology of a location,

compounds present in the ore and its abundance will be identified.

Remote Sensing

This method uses devices such as sonar, radar, and satellite images to gather image

representation of the earth’s surface. These representations aid us in finding probable

mining sites.

Geophysical Methods

This is a technique that uses the properties of minerals and geology to determine their

location. An example is diamond extraction. Through volcanic pipes, diamond bearing

rocks known as kimberlites were carried from the mantle to the surface.

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals from mineral deposits.

Surface Mining

Surface mining is being used to extract ore minerals near the surface of Earth. This type of

mining is being performed to obtain sand, gravel, coal, phosphates, iron, copper, and

aluminum. It is usually preferred over underground mining since it is less expensive, safer,

and it involves less electricity and water. However, it poses more environmental problems

than underground mining. The soil and rocks that cover the ores are being removed

through blasting. Blasting is a controlled use of explosives and gas exposure to break rocks.

There are five types of surface mining. This includes strip mining, open-pit mining,

dredging, mountaintop removal mining, and highwall mining.

Strip mining is usually used in extracting coal. This type of mining is ideal on surfaces that

are flat and horizontal. In this method, a thin strip of layer is removed above the mineral

deposit, and wastes are dumped just behind it. Once the mineral deposit is exposed,

another strip parallel to the first strip is made, and this time, the wastes are dumped on

top of the first strip. This is the cheapest type of mining, but it produces the largest

environmental footprint.

Open pit mining, also known as open-cast mining, is considered as the most common type

of surface mining. It is usually used to extract near-surface deposits like sand and gravel.
This type of mining creates an open pit mine or a large-scale hole in the ground that is

continuously enlarged by blasting and drilling the rocks apart. The mine becomes

cone-shaped with benches or steps spiraling from top to bottom when exposed in a

cross-section. This orientation allows the trucks to go down the mine from the sides while

collecting the blasted debris.

Dredging is a type of mining that is used to collect unconsolidated materials from bodies of

water. Although this type of mining does not contribute to chemical pollution, it still affects

diversity of organisms in the water by dispersing fine particles over a large area. In the long

run, it could degrade marine habitats by disrupting water currents and sediment

placement.

Mountaintop removal mining is a form of strip mining where the mountaintops are

removed to extract coal, and the wastes are dumped to nearby areas called valley fills.

Highwall mining is an open-cut mining which can be a combination of surface and

underground mining. This type of mining is usually used in coal extraction. Rocks are drilled

beneath the ground which can be very dangerous, especially when there is undermining on

the high wall causing the ground to become unstable.

Underground mining is used to extract the rocks, minerals, and other precious stones

that can be found deep beneath Earth’s surface. The underground mining requires the

creation of a tunnel so miners can reach the ore minerals. This kind of mining is more

expensive and dangerous as compared to surface mining because miners need to use

explosive devices to remove the minerals from the rocks surrounding them. This type of

mining involves several methods such as room-and-pillar mining, shrinkage stoping, and

vertical crater retreat (VCR).

Room-and-pillar mining is a method used to extract mineral resources that are deep and

tabular. Pillars are left to support the hanging wall. Rooms and pillars are arranged in

regular patterns where pillars are designed with circular or square cross sections

separating the rooms.

Shrinkage stoping is a method where the ore deposits are excavated by slicing a

horizontal pattern, starting from the bottom of the deposit going upwards.

Vertical crater retreat (VCR) is a method that uses crater blasting techniques where

powerful explosives are placed in big holes. This method is widely used by miners

worldwide.

Factors Affecting Mineral Availability

Mineral availability is affected by several factors such as geologic, economic, and

environmental factors.

Geologic Factors

Our mineral supply comes from mineral deposits. Mineral deposits are mixtures of

elements or minerals formed from several geologic processes. From these mineral

deposits, some important elements including metals can be economically extracted from

specialized rocks called ore deposits. Examples of geologic factors that affect abundance of

mineral deposits are geological origin of the area, presence or absence of volcano, and age

of the geologic structure.

Economic Factors

Economic factors also affect mineral availability. These include the costs in getting the

supply such as engineering, mineral extraction, and processing and costs for coping with

the demand such as commodity prices, land tenure, taxation, and other legal policies.

Environmental Factors

Environmental factors affect mineral resources. Due to problems brought about by

pollution associated with mineral production and waste products due to mining and
mineral processing, these problems could be far greater than the costs in compliance with

the government regulations and the profitability of the extracted mineral deposits.

PROCESSING OF MINERALS AND REDUCING THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF MINING

Mineral processing is the process of extracting minerals from the ores, refining them, and
preparing these minerals for use. The primary steps involved in processing minerals include

sampling and analysis, comminution, concentration, and dewatering.

Sampling

Sampling is the removal of a sample portion that represents a whole needed for the

analysis of this material. One or more samples are needed.

Analysis

Analysis is important in evaluating the valuable components in an ore. This includes

chemical, mineralogical, and particle size analysis.

Chemical Analysis

Chemical analysis involves the use of an electric discharge that excites the elements in the

sample. This causes it to emit a certain spectrum that will reveal the identity of the elements

and its concentration.

Mineralogical Analysis

Mineralogical analysis uses heavy liquid testing to separate the less dense, same density,

and denser materials. Coarsely grounded minerals are classified according to particle size

through sieving.

Comminution

After the mineral has been found and mined, it needs to be extracted from the ore. Think of

a chocolate chip cookie as an analogy to understand comminution. Like the thorough

distribution of chocolate chips in a cookie, minerals are also spread throughout the rocks.

Most of the time, the chocolate chips are very visible in the cookie, but sometimes they are

not easily seen since they are embedded inside the cookie. One possible way to identify the

number of chocolate chips present is by crushing the cookie. Once the cookie is crushed,

the chocolate chips can now be identified. This is the case in geology, wherein some

minerals in rocks are visible, while some are not.

Concentration

The minerals must be separated from the waste rock before they can be used. The process
is called concentration. It involves the separation of the valuable minerals from the raw

materials creating an end product called concentrate. Various separation techniques are

used, such as optical, density, flotation, magnetic, and electrostatic separation.

Optical Separation

Optical separation is a process used in the concentration of minerals with distinct

contrasting colors (black and white) seen with the naked eye.

Density Separation

Density separation is a process that uses the density of minerals as the concentrating

agent and performs a sink and float separation of water and the grounded minerals. An

example is panning, the technique used in mining gold. Since the particles of gold are

denser, they will sink to the bottom once the pan is shaken. This makes gold easily

removable.

Flotation Separation

Flotation separation is the most widely used method that uses the mineral’s induced

surface physicochemical properties. Chemicals are used to alter the mineral’s surface

properties to make them float, forming a froth layer. This makes the valuable minerals

easier to separate from the rest.

Magnetic Separation

Magnetic separation is a process that involves different degrees of attraction of minerals

to magnets. An example is iron ore since it has magnetic properties. The ores are carried by

a conveyor belt passing by a strong electromagnet. This will then separate the magnetic

minerals and non-magnetic waste.

Electrostatic Separation

Electrostatic separation is a process that separates the mineral particles based on their

electric charges. As shown in Fig. 6 below, an electrostatic separator utilizes a mineral’s

electrical properties to separate them from each other.

Dewatering

Dewatering uses concentrates to convert materials into usable minerals. This involves

filtration and sedimentation of the suspension and drying the solid material harvested from

this suspension.

The Environmental Impacts of Mining

Mining generates high amounts of wastes. For example, a mine processes ores into refined

copper. In this process, finishing with a kilo of the refined product would produce 99 kilos of

waste. With this information, it can be computed that only 1 percent will end up as

refined product in a mineral ore, and 99 percent would go to waste. Minerals are

contained in ores. These minerals are processed, and the ores’ remnants are disposed of as
waste. If not handled and managed properly, these wastes, called tailings, can cause serious

environmental problems.

Environmental Cost of Irresponsible Mining

Mining, especially when done irresponsibly, causes serious environmental impacts. It affects

the quality of air, water, and land resources. It also causes detrimental damage to the

ecosystem and local communities.

Impact on Air Quality

Dust may be produced in the process of mining ore since blasting through rocks is part of

mining. In addition, methane released by the coal mines adds to environmental problems

since it is a greenhouse gas.

With inadequate safeguards, sulfur dioxide may also contribute to air pollution by risky

smelter operations. This smelting produced 142 million tons of sulfur dioxide released in

the atmosphere annually.

Impact on Water Quality

Mine tailings don’t just pollute the water. They also destroy coral reefs and are detrimental

to water quality, impacting all the organisms in these areas. Small-scale fishermen are

greatly affected by this since damage can affect the availability of fish. This is what

happened to the Pagatban River in southern Negros Oriental.

Another example is the irresponsible mining that occurred in Sipalay, Negros Occidental.

Numerous hectares of productive rice fields were damaged because of the spilled mine

tailings.

Impact on Land Resources

Entire forests can be destroyed since trees must be cut down to construct a mining site.

Erosion may also result from mining activities. Huge holes or craters are also made when

people dig for precious minerals.

Damage to the Ecosystem

Mining and the results of mining activities completely destroy animal habitats and affect

their health and way of living. The damage to plants, animals, and the surrounding areas

can cause an imbalance in ecosystems.

Damage to Local Communities

Health, food security, and the livelihoods of local communities are also negatively impacted

by mining. The environmental impact of mining puts all aspects of life in local communities

at risk.

Sustainable Mineral Processing

The main goal of sustainable mineral processing is to lessen the impact of mining and to

generate zero waste. This involves the production of clean and reusable water, utilizing solid

wastes, and maintaining clean air.

● Clean and reusable water. This includes recycling water used within mining sites

and removing any metal particulates in the used water.

● Solid waste utilization. This includes the use of solid tailings in infrastructures and

extracting useful minerals from the tailings.

● Clean air. This includes mining that is totally free from dust or toxic gases and

involves the capture of emissions such as CO2 and H2SO4

for conversion into useful products.

Mining Waste Products and Their Management
● Apply new technologies in extracting ore minerals. Recent improvements in

mining technology enable companies to extract more minerals from the ores with

fewer wastes in production.

● Plan from the exploration to the rehabilitation of mining sites. The mining

companies must plan out their sites from exploration to rehabilitation. The process

of rehabilitating or restoring the land that has been previously mined is called mine

reclamation. Since overburden (natural rock and soil lying on top and around the

ore) is removed to obtain a mineral, it must be reclaimed after mining operations

through numerous activities such as restoring topsoil and planting grass or trees.

● Ensure restoration of communities near mining sites. The mining company must

also ensure that they can restore the community that was displaced because of their

activities. These include, but are not limited to, community development projects and

infrastructure improvements.

● Ensure proper management of tailings from milling ores. Tailings from mines can

be zoned in and surrounded by lands to avoid erosion of the ponds, thus minimizing

the possibility of seepage of the tailings. Better yet, these mine tailings should be

surrounded by an impermeable, erosion-proof terrain.

● Follow proper design for mining structures according to government

regulations. Mine structures should be designed at par or even surpass current

rules and regulations set by the government and international standards.

● Exercise good mining practices. Other mining practices include reforestation, slope

stabilization, maintenance for dump facilities, managing and monitoring air, and

water quality, erosion control, and water conservation.

Existing Laws and Regulations for Mining in the Philippines.

There are existing laws and regulations for mining in the Philippines. One of the laws

governing mining in the Philippines is the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 or RA 7942. This

law aims primarily to establish rules and regulations of mining practices in the country and
attract foreign investors to explore the potential of minerals in the country. At the same

time, the law also intends to balance the mining industry, the culture, and the protection of

the environment.

● One of the laws governing mining in the Philippines is the Philippine Mining Act of

1995 or RA 7942, which aims primarily to establish rules and regulations of mining

practices in the country and attract foreign investors to explore the potential of

minerals in the country.

WEATHERING

Weathering- is the breaking down of rocks either mechanically or chemically.

Mechanical weathering- is the process where rocks physically break down into smaller pieces
Frost Wedging- freezing and thawing of ice
Heating and Cooling- When different minerals in rocks expand and contract due to sudden changes in
the temperature.
Biological Activity- when seawater penetrates crevices in rocks and evaporates, salt crystals tend to
grow. Biological activity is the process wherein activities of organisms such as plants and animals may
break rocks apart.
Unloading- is the process in which thick layers of sediments overlying deeply buried rocks are removed
through erosion or uplift.
Chemical weathering- is the process wherein rocks break down due to chemical reactions.
Dissolution- occurs when a solid rock or mineral dissolves in a liquid such as water.
Hydrolysis- the process wherein water reacts with a mineral to form a new mineral is called hydrolosis
Oxidation- is a chemical combination of oxygen with a mineral to form a completely different mineral.

EROSION
Erosion- is the movement of sediments and particles through the help of transporting media such as
glacial ice, water, and wind.
Water erosion- is a type of erosion where water carries the sediments to different bodies of water such
as rivers.
Splash erosion- caused by rainfall in which a single raindrop can create a small crater dispersing the soil
particles.
Rill Erosion- the improvement of flow paths for the rainwater causes rill erosoion
Gully Erosion- describes the erosion caused directly by rainwater to runoff or melting snow.
Glacial eroision- happens when a glacier, or a river of highly compact ice, moves downhill due to its
weight.
Accelerate the rate of soil erosion- soil erodibility, overgrazing, cutting of trees and removal of
vegetation, and use of pesticides, and the like.
Steps to lessen the amount and rate of soil erosion- terracing, reducing farmland conversion, planting
vegetation, applying organic fertilizer and building retaining walls.
FOSSIL FUELS

Fossil fuel- is a general term used to refer to all deposits of organic materials capable of being burnt as
fuels
Peatification- involves partial decay of plant debris in swampy, waterlogged, environments
Coalification- results in the production of different ranks of coal from peat to lignite to bituminous coal
to anthracite.
Coal- is a carbon rich deposit formed from dead plant material through the process of coalification.
Peat- is considered as a precursor to coal.
Oil- also know as petroleum, is a black thick and mushy liquid. It is commonly found between rock layers
Natural gas- is described as the cleanest energy alternative because it emits less harmful by-products
than other fossil fuels do.

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

Renewable energy sources- are those that are replenished naturally at anthropogenic time scales and
cannot be depleted.
Geothermal energy- refers to this heat contained within the planet although some use term to indicate
the part of the Earth’s heat can be exploited and used by humans.
Geothermal gradient- the rate increase in temperature with depth
Areas with recoverable geothermal energy three main elements- heat source, reservoir, and fluid.