Rock Mining
Mining might have been the second earliest humankind activity after agriculture. The two endeavors were together the primary industries of the first civilizations. Little has changed in terms of the significance of these industries to humankind. From the ancient times to date, mining has played a significant role in human existence. Here the term mining refers to the extraction from the earth of any naturally occurring mineral substance for utilitarian purposes. After minerals have been extracted, they can be sold in open markets, enabling the countries that have these minerals to get paid by those that do not. This results in the countries that have minerals to be the great-powers of the world while those that do not to suffer from lower living standards. There are two general types of mined minerals geologically, these are:
Mineral: this refers to a naturally formed inorganic compound that has an orderly internal structure and a specific/characteristic crystal form, chemical composition and physical properties.
Rock: this refers to any naturally occurring aggregate made of one or more different types of minerals (Introduction to mining, n.d).
The Process
The core of mining in the extraction of minerals is to move excavations from the surface deep into the earth where the mineral deposits lie. Usually, these excavations (openings) into the earth surface are for allowing workers to access the underground deposits. However, boreholes are at times dug to extracts mineral deposits from the earth. These fields made up of boreholes are known as mines, even if the workers do not get to the geologic level of the mineral deposit. It is crucial to note that when a mineral has been determined to be economically viable with some confidence, the mineral occurrence is then referred to as ore or ore deposit....
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