Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Germs & minerals - Coggle Diagram
Germs & minerals
Surface mining
Surface mining is used to obtain mineral ores that are close to Earth’s surface. The soil and rocks over the ore are removed by blasting. Typically, the remaining ore is drilled or blasted so that large machines can fill trucks with the broken rocks.
Open–pit mining creates a big pit from which the ore is mined. The size of the pit grows until it is no longer profitable to mine the remaining ore.
Strip mines are similar to pit mines, but the ore is removed in large strips.
A quarry is a type of open–pit mine that produces rocks and minerals that are used to make buildings.
Germs
Gems are crystals that have been selected, cut and polished.
There are four basic criteria that determine a gem’s value: size, beauty, rarity and durability.
-
Famous germs
The Hope Diamond is now one of the most famous gems in the world. It is deep blue and surrounded by sixteen white diamonds suspended from a platinum chain which has forty six more diamonds.
The Regent Diamond is considered to be the most beautiful and purest diamond in the world. It is owned by France and is on display at the Louvre. It was used in the crowns of French royalty and Napoleon’s sword.
The Star of India is one of the largest sapphires in the world. It is also the most famous. Impurities in the sapphire cause light to bounce from the mineral rutile. The entire gem is the size of a golf ball and has been polished into the shape of a dome to emphasize the beauty of the star. It was eventually put on display at the American Museum of Natural History.
Underground mining
Underground mining is used for ores that are deep in Earth’s surface. For deep ore deposits, it can be too expensive to remove all of the rocks above the ore. Underground mines can be very deep.
These methods are more expensive than surface mining because tunnels are made in the rock so that miners and equipment can get to the ore.
Underground mining is dangerous work. Fresh air and lights must also be brought into the tunnels for the miners. Miners breathe in lots of particles and dust while they are underground. The ore is drilled, blasted, or cut away from the surrounding rock and taken out of the tunnels. Sometimes there are explosions and sometimes mines collapse as ore is being drilled or blasted.
Importance of minerals
There are minerals in the human body. Without these minerals, the human body does not function properly. The five major minerals in the human body are calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and magnesium. We get these minerals from the foods we eat and our body uses them to build bones or produce energy for cells.
We use minerals for agriculture, construction, technology, energy.