Danish Amoz

Mining Geology Introduction What is mining? Mining is the process of excavating minerals of economic value from the earth’s crus for benefit of mankind. Here we can assume that the earth’s crust, the outer surface of the earth, including the oceans, lakes and rivers, extends to depths of 30 to 50 km or so. For mining operations, one should have a working knowledge of geology. The word geology means the science of the earth and deals with the natural origin of the rocks that constitute the earth. A person interested in the extraction of minerals from the earth is, however, concerned with the thin surface of rocks that make up the earth crust to a depth of a maximum of 5 km so that geology enables him to locate, and to decide, the sites most economics form mining or quarrying. In geology, the terms minerals and rock have precise but different meanings. A mineral is a homogeneous and naturally occurring substance having definite physical properties and a composition that may be expressed...

Common Minerals About 107 elements are detected in laboratories, of which but only eight are found in abundance in the composition of the outer surface of the earth. These elements make up 98% of the Earth's visible crust. These are given (in order of frequency).  Oxygen              - 47% Calcium                3.5% Talc                     - 28% Sodium                 2.5% Aluminum              - 8% Pvtasym                    2.5% Iron                          - 5% magnesium           2.0% Total                98.5% Combinations of, these e...

Geochemically abundant and scarce metals Industrial and technological Metals applications can be divide into two categories based on their frequency of existence in the Earth's crust. Abundant geochemical metals, which are five elements (aluminium, iron, magnesium, manganese, and titanium), make up more than 0.1 percent of the earth's crust, while geochemical scarce metals, which include other metals as well (Including copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver), account for less than 0.1%. Almost in every rock, by accurate chemical analysis, at least small amounts of all metals can be detected. However, there are important differences in how abundant and rare metals occur in ordinary rocks. Geochemically abundant metals are present as basic constituents in minerals. Basalt, for example, is a common igneous rock composed mainly of the olivine and pyroxene (iron-magnesium silicate) minerals, feldspar (sodium-calcium-aluminium silicate), and ilmenite (iron titanium oxide). Accurate chem...