ESS205 Lesson 5: Earth Resources

Overpopulation

Too many people living in a given geographic area, putting pressure on resources and the environment.

Consumption Overpopulation

Each individual consumes too large a share of resources, leading to increased resource use and environmental degradation.

Resource Consumption Distribution

The world's richest 20% consume 76.6% of resources, while the poorest 20% consume only 1.5%. This results in resource depletion and environmental destruction.

Non-Renewable Resources

Resources with a limited supply that do not regenerate (or regenerate very slowly), including fossil fuels, nuclear fuels, and minerals.

Fossil Fuels

Non-renewable resources like oil, gas, and coal, which take millions of years to accumulate.

Nuclear Fuel

A non-renewable resource with safety and waste concerns, used for energy production.

Minerals

Non-renewable resources, including metals (iron, aluminum), industrial minerals (sand, gravel), and critical minerals (lithium, nickel, cobalt) for the green and digital economy.

Renewable Resources

Resources that replenish over short time periods (e.g., forests, fisheries, groundwater, agricultural land) but can be overexploited.

Renewable Energy

Energy from renewable sources like hydropower, solar, wind, and geothermal, but with challenges such as environmental impacts, high cost, and unpredictability.

Critical Minerals

Minerals important for the green and digital economy and security, such as aluminum, cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements.

Primary Mineral Deposits

Mineral deposits formed directly in host rock, often deep below Earth's surface, requiring industrial mining techniques for extraction.

Hydrothermal Ore Deposits

Deposits formed from hot, mineral-rich water moving through fractures in rock, often containing valuable metals like gold and copper.

Gold Veins

Veins where gold forms from crystallized minerals in hydrothermal deposits, often requiring open-pit or underground mining techniques for extraction.

Open-Pit Mining

A mining technique used for deposits near the surface, involving large excavations that create significant environmental impacts like habitat destruction and pollution.

Underground Mining

A mining method used for deep mineral deposits, requiring tunnels and shafts, with potential impacts like land subsidence and disruption of underground water flow.

Secondary Mineral Deposits

Deposits formed when minerals from primary deposits weather, erode, and redeposit in new locations, often requiring artisanal mining techniques.

Placer Deposits

Mineral deposits, particularly gold, washed out from primary deposits and settled in riverbeds or alluvial plains, often extracted using manual techniques like panning.

Mineral Resources Cycle

• Exploration: Geological surveys by prospectors and companies to discover new mineral deposits.

• Discovery: Fieldwork, quality geoscience, investment, and planning lead to the identification of viable deposits.

• Development: Feasibility studies, geological analysis, engineering, raising capital, and construction of mining infrastructure.

• Production: The extraction, milling, processing, and secondary processing of minerals to produce usable products.

• Reclamation: During and after mining, land is rehabilitated to its end use (habitat, agriculture, or development), such as backfilling excavations and site stabilization.

Strip Mining

A mining method for shallow deposits that removes layers of soil and rock, creating extensive environmental damage, including acid mine drainage and habitat destruction.

Acid Rock Drainage

The process where weathering of exposed sulfide minerals in mines creates sulfuric acid, which can pollute water sources and cause ecological damage.

Gold

A dense, soft, and malleable native chemical element (Au) used in jewelry, electronics, and as a financial standard. It is extracted from the earth through mining.

Diamond

A natural mineral formed from carbon (C) under high pressure, valued for its hardness and used in jewelry, electrical applications, and as an investment.

Diamond Production in Canada

Canada ranks third globally in diamond production, with significant mining in the Northwest Territories, and contributes approximately $2 billion annually to the economy.

Four Cs of Diamonds

The factors determining diamond value: Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat weight.

• Cut: The quality of the diamond's cut directly influences how well the diamond reflects light. The cut includes the diamond's proportions, symmetry, and polish. A well-cut diamond has more brilliance and sparkle, while a poorly cut diamond can appear dull, regardless of clarity and color. The ideal cut maximizes the diamond's beauty and is graded from Excellent to Poor.

• Color: Diamonds are graded on a color scale from D (colorless) to Z (light yellow or brown). The less color in a diamond, the more valuable it is. D-F diamonds are colorless, G-J are near colorless, K-M have faint yellow tints, and diamonds from N-Z have increasing yellow or brown tints. Color affects both appearance and value, with higher grades being rarer and more expensive.

• Clarity: Clarity refers to the presence of internal inclusions or external blemishes. Diamonds are graded on a scale from Flawless (no inclusions or blemishes visible under 10x magnification) to Included (inclusions or blemishes visible to the naked eye). Higher clarity means fewer visible imperfections, leading to a more valuable diamond. Common clarity grades include VS1 (Very Slightly Included) and SI1 (Slightly Included).

• Carat Weight: Refers to the weight of the diamond, not its size. One carat equals 200 milligrams. Larger diamonds are rarer and more valuable, but two smaller diamonds of equal total weight may be less expensive than one larger diamond of the same carat weight. Carat weight affects pricing exponentially.