Learning Objectives
After reading and studying this chapter, students should:
• Understand the relationship between human population and resource utilization.
• Understand why minerals are so important to modern society.
• Understand the difference between a resource and a reserve and why that difference is
important.
• Know some of the factors that control the availability of mineral resources.
• Understand the environmental impact of mineral development.
• Know the potential benefits that biotechnology can offer to environmental cleanup
associated with mineral extraction and production.
• Understand the economic and environmental role of recycling mineral resources.
• Understand the relationship between sustainability and mineral use.
Chapter Summary
This chapter focuses on the uses, sources, and environmental impacts of mineral resources. The chapter
opens with a detailed discussion of human use of minerals and major concepts related to mineral
resources. The subsequent section addresses the origins of mineral deposits through rock-forming
processes, biological processes, and weathering processes. The chapter closes with a detailed discussion
of direct and indirect environmental impacts of mineral resource extraction and solutions thereto,
including recycling of mineral resources.
Chapter Outline
I. Minerals and human use
A. Modern society depends on availability of mineral resources
B. Standard of living increases with the increased availability of minerals in useful forms
2. Minerals are an important part of the U.S. economy
C. Minerals can be considered the nonrenewable heritage of the geologic past
1. modern mineral deposits form too slowly to be of use
D. Resources and reserves
1. mineral resources
3. distinction between resources and reserves is based on geologic, economic, and legal factors
E. Availability and use of mineral resources
1. types of mineral resources
a. elements for metal production and technology, which can be classified according to their
1
15
5
Mineral Resources
and the Environment
2. Responses to limited availability
a. solutions to mineral shortage
b. increasing demand
c. reliance on importation of mineral resources
II. Geology of mineral resources
A. Local concentrations of metals
2. concentration necessary to be considered ore varies with technology, economics, and politics
3. concentration factor: concentration necessary for profitable mining (see A Closer Look: Plate
Tectonics and Minerals)
B. Genesis of some common mineral resources
1. igneous processes
2. metamorphic processes
3. sedimentary processes
5. weathering processes
6. other minerals from the sea
a. sulfide deposits
b. manganese oxide nodules
c. cobalt-enriched manganese crusts
III. Environmental impact of mineral development
A. Potential future mineral resource crisis may be coupled with reaching the limit of mineral-related
pollution
1. environmental impact of mineral exploitation depends on many factors
B. Impact of mineral exploration and testing
2. impacts depend on types of activities and types of landscapes and ecosystems
C. Impact of mineral extraction and processing
2. indirect effects by population increase in mining area
4. waste from mines
6. water pollution (see A Closer Look: Mining and Toxicity)
8. impact on the biological environment
10. minimizing the impact of mineral development
12. biotechnology (see A Closer Look: Homestake Mine, South Dakota)
13. minimization of environmental impacts
a. environmental regulations
b. on-site and off-site treatment of waste
c. practicing the three R’s of waste management: reduce, reuse, recycle
IV. Recycling mineral resources
A. Primary environmental impacts of mineral resource utilization relate to waste products and disposal
1. recycling of resources reduces wastes
B. Waste from some parts of the mineral cycle may be referred to as ore
1. some metals have been recycled for many years
2. recycling saves both mineral resources and energy
V. Minerals and sustainability
A. Sustainable development and mineral use appear incompatible, but partial solutions are possible
2. alternate materials or processes can reduce the need for mineral resources
a. fiber optics cables replace copper in phone wires
B. Development of substitutes or more efficient resource usage usually takes several decades
1. time available to find a solution depends upon the ratio of known reserve to rate of consumption
Answers to Review Questions and Critical Thinking Questions
Review Questions
1. A resource is a concentration of a naturally occurring material that can be potentially extracted at a
2. Ore is a term describing metallic minerals that are concentrated enough to be mined at a profit.
4. Metallic ore deposits form at divergent plate boundaries because cold seawater circulates through
5. The major types of mineral deposits are a) elements for metal production and technology, formed via
6. Major environmental impacts associated with mining include waste from mines, water pollution, air
pollution, impacts on the biological environment, and social impacts.
Mineral Resources
Critical Thinking Questions
1. This question will require some knowledge of the steps in the papermaking and printing process, the
equipment that is used in various stages of that process, and the mineral resources that are used to
2. An answer to this question could focus on comparison of the trends of known mineral reserves, of
3. An answer to this question will reflect a student’s attitudes toward new technologies for dealing with
environmental problems and toward genetic manipulation of organisms. The student might address