All fossils are divided into many groups and subgroups based on different criteria. Each group accordingly has its own value for the national economy. The economic potential of a country largely depends on the number various kinds minerals and the country’s ability to wisely manage, sell or process them. It is important to know what types of minerals there are and at least several criteria for their classification.
Main groups of minerals
Wealth earth's bowels is so huge and diverse that the classification may be unrealistic to remember, so it is worth highlighting three main groups of the minerals section:
- metal ores;
- combustible underground fossils;
- construction minerals.
Metal ores
The largest group in the list of types of minerals is occupied by metal ores. This group is unique in its diversity: it consists of various types of ore, which necessarily includes metal, including gold, silver, zinc, iron and copper. Naturally, each ore contains different quantities metal, therefore they divide ores into poor and rich.
Iron ore is one of the most important sources of iron. Rich iron ore contains huge amounts of this substance and its extraction is very profitable. This ore is the basis for steel production. Its deposits are found mainly among volcanic rocks, due to eruptions and movement tectonic plates new iron ore deposits are being formed.
Nickel ore, the mining and processing of which is also an important part of the national economy. Nickel mining is necessary because it is widely used for the production of stainless, heat-resistant steels.
Combustible minerals
Everything is simple here, this is the well-known oil and gas. Their deposits are often located under water, the Caspian Sea is especially rich in oil. These minerals are used by humans on the largest scale, and although in our globe there are many oil and gas deposits, scientists are already actively looking for an alternative, since in a few decades humanity risks exhausting everything earthly reserves. Combustible minerals also include peat, hard coal and brown coal. Coal is actively used for the operation of power plants.
Construction minerals
The group is very diverse in its composition and is no less important than the previous two. This includes cheap limestone-shell rock, which has been the main building material for many centuries, and expensive granite and marble (the cost of rare varieties of the latter can be fabulous). This also includes clay and sand. Clay is a material that people have been using for thousands of years; it was from the remains of clay household items that scientists studied ancient civilizations.
It is impossible to learn what types of minerals there are without mentioning gemstones. Their mining is carried out all over the world, and the number of gems that humanity uses in both jewelry, and in other industries is immeasurable.
Minerals - video
Think about the phrase “minerals”. “Fossil” means something that is extracted from the depths of the earth. It can be solid (for example, it can be a mineral), but it can be liquid and even gaseous. “Useful” means that we are talking about something necessary for people, something that brings benefits.
Everything seems to be clear. But there is a subtlety here associated with understanding what exactly appears to a person useful. Many centuries passed before our distant ancestors began to realize the usefulness of the stone picked up on the river bank and learned to process this find of theirs. Over the centuries, man's understanding of the richest storehouse that lies beneath his feet has grown. By by and large there are no “unuseful” minerals. In fact, everything that is in the earth's crust can become useful to humans. If not today, then in the future.
And here it arises very difficult problem. By extracting all kinds of minerals from the bowels of the earth, people deplete these bowels and violate geological structure subsoil, overload the earth's surface with both mineral processing products and waste generated during processing. It is clear that this environmental problem is becoming more and more aggravated as the extraction of minerals increases and the range of minerals that people include in the category of “useful” expands.
Fossil fuels
You can probably guess which fossils are classified as fuels. This peat, brown and hard coals, oil, natural gases, oil shale. However, the term “flammable” is not very appropriate. It suggests that these fossils are used only as fuel. Fuel for industrial enterprises, power plants, various engines, etc. This is true, but not the whole truth. So-called fossil fuels are widely used for many other purposes, especially in chemical industry. This is especially true for oil. It is often said that “to drown with oil is the same as to drown with banknotes.”
Peat, brown coals, and oil shale formed on the site of lakes, which over time turned first into swamps and then into plains (the so-called lake plains). The remains of plants and other organisms were deposited at the bottom of the lake over many years. All this gradually rotted and turned into the so-called sapropel.“Sapros” means “rotten” in Greek, and “pelos” means “dirt.” So sapropel is “dirt” from the rotted remains of living organisms. Gradually, as the lake turned into swamp, and the swamp into a lake plain, sapropels became peat bogs or turned into brown coals or oil shale. By the way, oil shale is also called sapropelites.
Note that the processes of formation of combustible minerals from sapro-pels are very complex processes, which also require considerable time. Peat bogs, for example, take thousands of years to form. This, by the way, should be remembered by all lovers of swamp drainage. The first deposits of oil shale were formed in the Proterozoic - they are more than a billion years old. About 40% of all oil shale was formed during the Paleozoic era.
Regarding coal, then almost all of its layers were formed 350-250 million years ago - in the Carboniferous and Permian periods of the Paleozoic. In those days, the Earth was covered with lush thickets of giant tree ferns, mosses, and horsetails. The soil did not have time to “digest” all this woody mass. When the trees died, they fell into the water, were covered with sand and clay and did not decompose (rot), but gradually turned into coal. Take a piece of coal in your hands and imagine that in front of you is an “alien” from a time that ended approximately 300 million years ago.
The origin of coal, peat, and oil shale is quite well understood today. This, however, cannot be said about oil. About five thousand years ago, residents of the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates (where the states of Iraq and Kuwait are now located) noticed fountains of dark oily liquid erupting from the ground, which burned well. They named it "nafata", which means "erupting" in Arabic. And now millennia have passed, but there are still discussions about the origin of “nafata”.
There are two main hypotheses. According to one hypothesis, oil was formed organic by way, i.e. from the remains of plants and animals that lived many millions of years ago (similar to how peat, coal, and oil shale were formed). According to another hypothesis, oil has inorganic origin.
The organic hypothesis of the origin of oil was once put forward by the famous Russian scientist Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov(1711 - 1765). In his work “On the Layers of the Earth,” he wrote about oil: “This brown and black oily matter is expelled by underground heat from the preparing coals and emerges into various crevices and cavities, dry and wet, filled with water...”.
In 1919 Russian academician Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky(1861-1953) performed double distillation of sapropel taken from Lake Balkhash and obtained gasoline. Scientists have now found that organic compounds are in fact capable of turning into oil and that this happens best at temperatures of 100-200 "C. But these are precisely the temperatures that are characteristic of depths of 3-5 km, which are considered the main zone of oil formation. While depths from higher temperature belongs to the zone of formation of natural gases.
One version of the inorganic hypothesis of the origin of oil involves the formation of oil at great depths from igneous rocks. This assumption was first made in 1805 by a German naturalist. Alexander Humboldt. While traveling around South America he watched as oil oozed from such rocks. In 1877, the famous Russian scientist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907) spoke in favor of the mineral origin of oil in the depths of the earth. And today, some scientists continue to defend the “magmatic version” of the formation of oil at great depths in earth's mantle, where for sufficient high temperatures carbon and hydrogen form various hydrocarbon compounds.
Disputes about the origin of oil continue to this day. It is suggested that there are different types oils of different origins.
Metal ores
Surely you've heard about ferrous metals And non-ferrous metals. I hope you understand that “ferrous metals” do not have to be black in color. This is the name of the metals used in the smelting of cast iron and steel. These are silver-white (not at all black!) iron, manganese, titanium, vanadium, and also bluish-gray chromium. And the so-called non-ferrous metals are silver-white aluminum, tin, nickel, silver, platinum, zinc, red copper, yellow gold, bluish gray lead and a number of other metals.
Most metals were formed in deep igneous rocks. They went up to earth's surface together with molten magma, which, when solidified, created hills and mountain ranges in the form of intrusive igneous rocks (mainly in the form of granites). Then natural influences (sun, water, air) destroyed the mountains, and metal deposits appeared in sedimentary rocks.
One should not think that when they talk about the formation of metals and their deposits, then we are certainly talking about metals in their pure, native form. Some metals, as you know, actually occur in this form. However, metals are extracted mainly from the corresponding metal ores. So deposits of metals are, as a rule, deposits of corresponding ores. No wonder metal mining is called mining production.
Among the ores gland it should be noted magnetic iron ore(magnetite), red iron ore (hematite) And brown iron ore (limonite). Magnetite got its name due to its magnetic properties. This ore is the richest in iron (up to 70%). But higher value for ferrous metallurgy, hematite is the most common iron ore in the earth's crust. Its chemical composition: Its 2 0 3 plus impurities of manganese (up to 17%), aluminum (up to 14%), titanium (up to 11%). Large deposits of hematite are located in Ukraine in the Krivoy Rog region and in Russia in Kursk region(the so-called Kursk magnetic anomaly).
Aluminum obtained mainly from bauxite ores, which contain alumina, silica, iron oxides. Alumina is aluminum oxide (A1 2 0 3); its content in bauxite reaches 70%. In addition to bauxite, raw materials for the production of aluminum also serve nephelines - gray and reddish minerals of the silicate class (KMa 3 [A18Yu 4] 4) and alunites- minerals of the sulfate class (KA1 3 2). Alunite ores are used to produce not only aluminum, but also sulfuric acid, vanadium, and gallium. Let us also note kaolin- clay
white, raw material for the production of aluminum, porcelain, earthenware. It contains the mineral kaolinite (A1 4).
The most important copper ore - red-yellow chalcopyrite, or copper pyrite (CiGe8 2). To obtain copper, dark, copper-red is also used. bornite(Ci 5 Ge8 4). The main titanium ores are rutile(TYU 2) and ilmenite, or titanium iron ore (the name “iron ore” is explained by its chemical formula: HeTYu 3). Mined in limestone rocks lead ore galena, or lead sheen (Pb8). Next we note tin ore cassiterite, or tin stone (8p0 2), zinc ore sphalerite, or zinc blende (2p8), copper-red nickel ore nickel(SHAZ), red poisonous mercury ore cinnabar(H&8).
I hope you understand that all these names, and especially chemical formulas, do not need to be specially memorized. They are presented here, as they say, for the sake of completeness. In addition, it won’t hurt to gradually get used to the chemical formulas. Moreover, if they are not considered in chemical laboratory, but directly in nature.
Among non-ferrous metals special place occupy gold, silver, platinum. They are called noble metals. They have a beautiful appearance and are practically not subject to atmospheric influences - that’s why they are called noble. In gold deposits, gold is found either in rock (for example, gold-quartz veins or arsenic-pyrite ores) or in placers - sand, pebbles, and individual large nuggets. Silver in its native form is quite rare. It is usually found in the form of compounds with sulfur, antimony, and arsenic. More than half of the world's silver production is extracted not from silver ores, but incidentally from lead-zinc, copper, and gold ores. Platinum, like gold, is most often found in the form of placers, and, as a rule, together with gold. Platinum is also extracted from copper-nickel ores.
Colored stones
Now let's get acquainted with a special family of solid materials that belong to minerals, although they are not used either as fuel or for the production of metals or any chemical products. It's about O colored stones. There are two groups of colored stones:
* transparent minerals called precious stones, and also gems(diamond, emerald, aquamarine, ruby, sapphire, topaz, amethyst and others);
Beautifully colored opaque minerals and some hard materials, called semi-precious And ornamental stones(malachite, rhodonite, charoite, agate, jasper, lapis lazuli, jade, amber, pearls and others).
Let's take a closer look at some of the precious and semi-precious precious stones.
Diamond- one of the most interesting and expensive gems. Its name comes from the Greek "adamas", which means "indestructible". It is the hardest mineral in nature. Therefore, it is used mainly not in jewelry, but in technology - for polishing and grinding solids, for penetration deep wells(especially hard drills), for metal processing (especially hard cutters), etc. Methods have been developed to obtain artificial diamonds for technical purposes. In my own way chemical composition Diamond is a simple substance called carbon. It's amazing how different it is from the other simple substance, which is also carbon. This means graphite. Graphite cannot boast of hardness and does not look like a precious stone at all. Diamond, in addition to exceptional hardness, has an amazing “play of light”. When lighting a diamond, you can observe bright and colorful highlights - from blue to red. The beauty of diamonds was fully revealed to people after they learned how to make a special cut of these stones in the 17th century, turning them into brilliant diamonds. Of course, no one uses diamonds in technical purposes- These are exclusively jewelry stones.
Emerald - gemstone of deep green color. It is a transparent variety beryl- mineral of the silicate class ( chemical formula: A1 2 Be 3 ). The color of emerald is due to the presence of a small amount of chromium in beryl. Flawless emerald crystals are valued higher by jewelers than diamonds. Currently, the production of artificial emeralds, which are used in quantum electronics, has been established.
Malachite - a very beautiful opaque jewelry stone with a soft green color and a variety of patterns. It got its name from the Greek “malakhe”, which means “mallow”. The color of malachite is indeed similar to the color of the leaves of this plant. Malachite is used to make small items ( jewelry, medallions, boxes, figurines), as well as grandiose vases, tables, columns in the state rooms, etc. Let us recall that the mineral malachite belongs to the class of carbonates;
its chemical formula: Cu 2 [C0 3 ] (OH) 2. Malachite exists only as a natural mineral. In the 19th century, malachite deposits were discovered in the copper deposits of the Urals. They began to be intensively developed and sometimes thoughtlessly used. At first, malachite was sent to smelting furnaces as ore to obtain copper, and it was used to cover the roofs of houses. Soon a real malachite boom began. Russian stone (as malachite was called in Europe) was exported to many countries. It has won universal recognition as an excellent ornamental stone. Over the course of a century, the Ural malachite deposits were practically depleted. Today, the only world supplier of malachite remains the copper mines of Katanga in Zaire. After some time, they will also be depleted, and then the industrial production of this beautiful stone will stop completely. This is such a sad story.
Rhodonite- the second native Russian stone after malachite. Its rich deposits are found in the Middle Urals. It is no less beautiful than malachite, but its color is different - bright pink and crimson colors combined with black patterns. Rhodonite belongs to the silicate class of minerals; its chemical formula: CaMP 4. Like malachite, rhodonite is a jewelry and ornamental stone. Brooches, boxes, stands, medallions, ashtrays - it is difficult to list all the products made from rhodonite. From large blocks of this stone, craftsmen carve columns and floor lamps on the main staircases, sarcophagi, grandiose vases and the like. Currently, rhodonite from the Middle Urals continues to enter the world market. Rhodonite deposits in Madagascar and Australia are also used. So far everything is going well. But what will happen when all these deposits are depleted?
Charoite, beautiful mineral stone lilac color, not everyone knows. After all, it appeared in jewelry production quite recently - in 1977, after it was discovered by geologists in the vicinity of the Chara River in Irkutsk region. Although charoite began to be mined quite recently, all signs of depletion of its deposits on Char are already evident. Perhaps geologists will find new deposits of lilac stone. But for now we can only hope for this.
Amber- a well-known semi-precious stone with a variety of color shades (from white, pale yellow, bright golden to red-brown and even dark brown). It is often called the sun stone. Amber is not a mineral because it does not have crystal structure. It is a hardened fossil resin coniferous trees that spread widely throughout the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods(40-120 million years ago). Sun stone- a very valuable jewelry and ornamental material. To obtain large samples of this stone, amber grains are collected from sea placers and the entire mass is subjected to pressure at elevated temperatures. However, only 20% of amber is used as an ornamental material. And 80% of amber is used to produce rosin, succinic acid, amber oil, and varnishes. Amber varnishes are better than all others in durability and shine. Outstanding masters - Amati and Stradivari - covered their instruments with them.
Pearl are solid beads of spherical or irregular shape, formed inside the shells of some mollusks. Pearls consist mainly of mother of pearl, which over time is deposited in concentric layers around foreign particles (for example, grains of sand or small organisms) trapped between the shell valves. Thanks to mother-of-pearl, pearls have a unique iridescent shine. It is widely used for making all kinds of jewelry. Pearls can be found in elegant and ceremonial headdresses and clothing, personal weapons, beads, and various jewelry. Pearl fishing is very labor-intensive: you have to dive to the bottom and look for shells with pearls there. However, currently more than 90% of pearls are grown in specially bred colonies of river mollusks.
Construction fossils
When a thirsty traveler wanders through the endless sands of the desert under the scorching sun, it is difficult for him to perceive these sands as minerals. When you're trekking off-road in the rain, with clay that sticks to your boots, it's hard to think of that clay as a mineral. In the same way, a person climbing a rock and bleeding his hands and feet on rubble and sharp stones will not think that there are mineral deposits in front of him. Meanwhile, clay, sand, crushed stone, and granite rocks - all these, in fact, are valuable minerals. They are classified into a group construction minerals and are used in the construction of buildings and various structures, as well as in the creation of sculptures and architectural details.
Of the various building minerals, especially important role played in the development of civilization limestones, marbles, granites. Rightfully in first place are limestones - the most common on Earth
sedimentary rocks. White, gray, golden limestones are an excellent material: they are easily sawn into blocks and acquire a pleasant, “warm” appearance after some processing.
The famous limestones are made of ancient egyptian pyramids, they were used to create colossal statues and the avenue of sphinxes in the ancient Egyptian temple in Luxor, the gallery of the ancient Roman Colosseum, palaces in ancient Babylon. Many castles, palaces, cathedrals medieval Europe also created from limestone. Let's note the famous palace ensembles of Paris (Versailles, Fontainebleau, Louvre), Notre Dame Cathedral.
Along with limestone, brick (red and white) was also widely used in Europe. However, until the 16th century, architects preferred limestone, which was often used in combination with granite. Later it started mass use clay bricks as more available material. At the same time, light limestones continued to be widely used for architectural decorations and sculptural groups.
As you already know, in the depths of the earth At high enough temperatures, limestone turns into marble. Unlike limestone, marble is highly polished. It is quite viscous and durable, and resists impacts well. This explains why marble has long been widely used for the manufacture of finishing slabs, columns, porticos, and for the creation of sculptures. Colonnade of the famous ancient Greek Parthenon (temple of Athena), the Taj Mahal mausoleum in Agra (India), sculptural compositions of Peterhof near St. Petersburg, decoration Winter Palace in St. Petersburg - similar examples A great variety of uses of marble could be cited.
Along with limestone and marble, gray and red are widely used in architecture and sculpture. granites. As an example, let's take the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel in France, carved from pink granite, reddish columns St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, the pedestal of the famous " Bronze Horseman" Granites are polished no worse than marble, and at the same time they are well resistant to destruction caused by water, winds, and chemical precipitation. Granite slabs and statues can last for centuries.
It must be admitted that the days of constructing buildings from stone blocks are almost over. They are a thing of the past along with the ancient and medieval cities. Nowadays building stone is used mainly only as facing material - for external and internal decoration. And the structures are based on modern, cheap and durable building materials - concrete, slag concrete, reinforced concrete, various types of bricks.
Natural minerals, used in national economy, are called minerals, and their accumulations in the bowels or on the surface of the Earth are called deposits. Minerals are solid, liquid and gaseous. Based on their area of use, they are divided into five groups. The first group consists of fuel and energy mineral resources (coal, oil, natural gas, peat, oil shale, uranium). The second includes ores of metals: ferrous (iron), non-ferrous (copper, aluminum, zinc, tin), rare and noble (vanadium, germanium, etc.). The third group is chemical raw materials: sulfur, potassium salts, apatites, phosphorites, etc. The fourth group is building materials, ornamental and precious stones (granite, marble, refractory raw materials, jasper, agate, diamond, etc.). Fifth - hydromineral minerals (underground fresh and mineralized waters).
In the bowels of the Earth there is very large number coal - its estimated reserves are, according to some sources, 15 trillion. t. Very large in the depths of the deposit iron ores. There are large reserves of oil shale, peat and natural gas. The scale of mining is indicated by the following fact: for every inhabitant of our planet, an average of about 5-6 tons are mined annually.
IN recent years needs for various types mineral resources are increasing.
From different places, geologists report the discovery of new and new mineral deposits. Advances in engineering and technology make it possible to extract valuable substances from the poorest ores and the most inaccessible deposits.
Mineral reserves of the subsoil are not unlimited. And although nature can restore its strength and in the depths of the Earth there is a constant process of formation and accumulation of mineral wealth, the pace of this restoration is incommensurate with the current rate of use of the earth's resources.
In just one day, in various furnaces and power plants around the world, as much mineral fuel is burned as nature has created in the depths over many, many years. for many years. Counted today total reserves many minerals. Taking into account the rate of their production, the approximate time frame within which they can be exhausted has been determined.
For some types of minerals, these periods are short, so the attitude towards mineral wealth should be very careful.
Needs to be implemented everywhere complex use minerals.
With this method of using minerals, everything that is raised from the depths of the Earth is subjected to complex processing at mining and processing and mining and metallurgical plants using various mechanical and physical-chemical processes. And at each stage of processing, more and more new elements are extracted. Wastes from one process serve as valuable raw materials for another.
There are already many examples of this in the Soviet Union complex method mining and processing of minerals. At non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises, along with 12 main non-ferrous metals, another 62 elements are simultaneously extracted from ore. Thus, together with copper and aluminum, silver, bismuth, platinum, and platinum group metals are obtained. They begin to extract sulfur and helium as a by-product from natural gas deposits, and from coal deposits - rare metals. Even waste rock that has to be brought to the surface to open up valuable deposits can be used to make building materials.
Mineral beneficiation. Mineral resources extracted from the depths, as a rule, cannot be immediately sent to metallurgical furnaces or thermal power plants. The coal is clogged with pieces of sandstone, limestone, and clay; ores are a solid mixture of minerals, the most different substances. Even in a rich iron ore pure iron rarely more than 50%, and in copper, lead, tin, zinc ores - only a few percent or fractions of a percent of these essential metals. The process of isolating the most valuable component from minerals and freeing them from various impurities is called enrichment.
The process of ore enrichment begins in powerful crushers, where massive steel rods, cones or balls are used to grind and crush fossils, turning large pieces into small ones.
The second stage is sorting the ground minerals by size. Crushed ore and coal are sifted on vibrating sieves and sieves with “windows” different sizes. Large pieces are sent again for crushing, the rest goes to the final stage of enrichment.
At the final stage, grains of valuable minerals are separated due to their special, unique properties.
If they are heavier than others, the so-called gravitational method is used. Minerals of different densities are also separated in a centrifuge, for example, diamonds are separated from their less valuable companions. Many metal ores enriched by magnetic separation, using the ability of metals to be attracted to a magnet. On the different ability of minerals to conduct electric current Electric separation is based.
Each mineral has its own special color, luster, shape, coefficient of friction, and interacts differently with acids and alkalis. All this is used in the enrichment of various minerals.
The most common enrichment method is flotation (from the French flotation - swimming) - based on the difference in the wettability of substances with water. Substances that are well wetted are called hydrophilic, and substances that are not wetted by water are called hydrophobic. Hydrophobic substances collect air bubbles around themselves and rise to the surface. The operation of the flotation machine is based on this property. In its large tanks, crushed ore is mixed with water, to which special substances are added - foaming agents. Air is forced through this mixture. Formed huge amount foam - tiny air bubbles. They stick to particles of copper, silver or lead, but do not stick to grains of impurities. The waste rock sinks, and the necessary particles, although they are heavier, float up along with the foam. The main advantage of flotation is that it allows you to isolate any minerals contained in the ore.
Without minerals, we would see a completely different picture of the world. After all, they are used everywhere - for making jewelry, for solving transport problems, in construction. Archaeologists have found that people learned to mine some minerals (copper) back in the Stone Age. So what is a mineral?
Minerals
Fossils are considered to be mineral formations found in the earth's crust that benefit us due to their chemical and physical properties. Humans use them as raw materials in production or as fuel. Minerals are distributed on the surface earth's crust unevenly, they are mainly concentrated in the form of layers, nests or placers. Several large accumulations form deposits, and especially large ones form basins, regions and provinces. Utility is a highly variable and conditional concept, since it depends on changes in needs, as well as on technologies for processing and extraction of minerals. Also, the definition of “mineral resources” includes products obtained through the use of mineral processing technologies.
Classification of minerals
Fossils are divided into
- liquid (oil),
- gaseous
- solid.
Based on the purpose, a category of building materials (granite, limestone, sand, clay), ores (precious, non-ferrous and ferrous metals), mining chemical raw materials (apatite, phosphates, mineral salts), precious stones and semi-precious stones, hydromineral resources (mineral and fresh underground) is distinguished water).
Fossils are also divided into
- non-metallic,
- metal
- flammable.
Non-metallic materials include building materials, ore-mineral and chemical raw materials. Metallic minerals are used for metal mining, and combustible minerals are used as fuel. By their origin, minerals are metamorphogenic, contact-metasomatic, magmatic, residual, sedimentary, etc. The category of the most valuable minerals is gas, oil and coal. It is by burning these mineral formations that humanity receives the main amount of energy. Each country has certain reserves of certain mineral resources, quantitative and high-quality composition which are largely determined by its economic level.
The answer to the question of what a mineral is, as well as what are the features of mining, is sought by science called “ mining" Some branches of geology are devoted to the discovery and location of deposits.
Fossil resources are not unlimited
Mining has created a number of problems. Most fossils are non-renewable, because their restoration requires many hundreds and thousands of years. The extraction of mineral resources has acquired such a pace and scale that today the issue of replacement arises with all seriousness. certain types fuels and alternative energy sources.
What are minerals needed for? How do people use minerals? After reading this article you will find answers to all your questions.
How are minerals used?
Minerals are used as fertilizers, as fuel, as building material
Minerals- All natural resources, which people extract from the depths of the earth.
Minerals are:
- combustibles (hard and brown coal, natural gas, oil, peat),
- ore (manganese and iron ores),
- construction (limestone, sand, granite, clay, gypsum, marble)
Combustible minerals used as raw materials and fuel for industry, for example, oil is a source for kerosene and gasoline; substances obtained from fossil fuels create synthetic fibers, plastics, varnishes, paints and the like.
From oil receive paints, medicines, perfumes, synthetic materials, diesel fuel, kerosene, fuel oil, tires, wheel tubes, fishing line, plastic bags.
Peat- This is an excellent warm bedding for pets, as dry peat absorbs moisture well. And if mixed with manure, it becomes an excellent fertilizer for gardens and fields - this is a guarantee of a good harvest. Peat can be used as fuel for stoves and power plants. Alcohol, vinegar, gas, technical wax, coke are obtained from peat - i.e. it is a good chemical raw material.
Coal– a source of heat and electricity. At special power plants, current is generated using coal. Coal is used to make paints, plastics, rubber, even medicines. Without coal, metal smelting is impossible.
Construction minerals used to construct buildings and make repairs.
Sand used for glass production. To do this, sand is specially mixed with lime and soda and placed in special ovens. The intense heat melts the mixture and produces liquid glass. It is poured into molds where it cools and becomes hard.
From white clay they make beautiful thin porcelain dishes, expanded clay balls that fill the ceilings, they serve as insulation
Limestone is a building material used in the production of cement, concrete, reinforced concrete and foam concrete. Lime is obtained from it, building stones, lime mortars. Many years ago, buildings in Moscow were built from white limestone. Some of them have survived to this day: the Bell Tower of Ivan the Great, the Bolshoi Theater.
From granite construct embankment supports for bridges. Polished granite is used for cladding buildings, metro stations, and pieces of granite are used to create wall paintings - mosaics.
From iron ores receive iron and its alloys: cast iron and steel. Copper, aluminum, zinc, lead, silver, gold and many other metals are obtained from non-ferrous metal ores. These metals are called non-ferrous because they have a variety of colors. Metals conduct heat and electricity well. That's why electrical wires are made of metal. Rails, roof coverings, and water pipes are made of various metals.
