Minerals and Mining Notes

Minerals and Mining

  • Chapter 20

Readings

  • Chapter 20

Homework

  • Video assignment next week - details to follow
  • Pearson due next Thursday on minerals

Spheres

  • Geosphere
  • Biosphere
  • Hydrosphere
  • Atmosphere

Abundance of Elements in Earth's Crust

  • Earth's crust is 1% of the planet's volume but contains materials we use daily.
  • Top 10 Elements:
    • Oxygen (O): 46.1%
      • Highly reactive, bonds with minerals, found in common compounds.
    • Silicon (Si): 28.2%
      • Large part of oxygen is in the form of silicates (compounds of oxygen and silicon).
    • Aluminum (Al): 8.23%
      • Most abundant metal in Earth's crust.
    • Iron (Fe): 5.63%
      • Most mined metal, essential for steel production.
    • Calcium: 4.15%
    • Sodium: 2.36%
    • Magnesium (Mag): 2.33%
    • Potassium (K): 2.09%
    • Titanium (Ti): 0.565%
    • Hydrogen (H): 0.14%
    • Rest of elements: 0.48%
  • Precious Metals:
    • Make up less than 0.03% of Earth's crust.
    • Copper: 0.006%
    • Zinc: 0.007%
    • Nickel: 0.0084%
    • Gold: 0.000004%
    • Silver: 0.0000075%
    • Platinum: 0.0000005%
    • Palladium: 0.0000015%

Where Do Chemical Elements Come From?

  • Supernova:
    • Chinese astronomers in 1054 recorded a "guest star" (supernova) in Taurus.
    • Emitted huge amounts of light and released chemicals in space.
    • Contained most of the first 26 elements in the periodic table.
  • Stellar Ovens:
    • Young star composed primarily of hydrogen.
    • Hydrogen leads to all known elements.
    • Fusion reactions until iron formation, releasing energy.
    • Reactions forming elements heavier than iron consume energy, leading to star collapse.

Elements in Earth's Crust

  • Only 8 elements (Oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, and magnesium) make up 98% of earth's mass
  • 100 elements Make >5000 minerals Composition Structure

Polymorphs

  • Diamonds and graphite are polymorphs of carbon.

Deathly Minerals

  • Lead in Flint, Michigan water example of mass exposure of elemental lead in iron ore.
  • Arsenopyrite (FeAsS):
    • Iron arsenic sulfide found in hydrothermal vents and pegmatites.
    • Oxidation leads to soluble arsenic in water and acid mine drainage.
  • Cinnabar (HgS):
    • Deep red mercury sulfide mineral.
    • Source of elemental mercury.
    • Mercury is toxic to humans.
  • Galena (PbS):
    • Lead sulfide mineral, primary ore of lead.
    • Cubic lattice structure, also a source of silver.
    • Lead is toxic if inhaled or ingested from dust particles.
  • Torbernite - Cu(UO2)2(PO4)2 · 10 H_2O
    • Composed of hydrated green copper, phosphate, and uranyl.
    • Found in granites containing uranium.
    • Radioactive, releases radon, can cause lung cancer.

5 Criteria for Minerals

  • Solid
  • Naturally occurring
  • Inorganic (mostly)
  • Characteristic chemical composition
  • Orderly crystalline structure

What is a Mineral: Occurs in nature

  • Natural vs Human-Made
  • Examples:
    • Natural: Chalk, Sand, Iron, Gold, Cotton, Coal, Wood, Natural Rubber, Wool, Silk
    • Man-Made: Concrete, Glass, Nylon, Leather, Paper, Synthetic Rubber Steel, Plastic, Rayon, Polyester

What is a mineral: Inorganic

  • Organic vs Inorganic Compounds
  • Organic compounds:
    • Contain carbon, usually bonded to hydrogen.
    • Examples: DNA, Sugar, Methane (CH_4), Ethanol.
  • Inorganic compounds:
    • Usually don't contain carbon.
    • Examples: Table Salt, Hydrochloric Acid, Quartz, Carbon Dioxide (CO_2).
  • Inorganic carbon compounds include carbon dioxide and some carbonates, cyanides, and carbides.

Always inorganic?

  • What about Coal?
    • Sedimentary rock made from old plant matter - lacks crystalline structure
  • Pure minerals?
    • Native elements
  • Mellite
    • Organic Mineral
    • Formula: Al2[C6(COO)6] · 16H2O

What is a mineral: Solid

  • Water states
    • Gas
    • Liquid
    • Solid

Is Ice a mineral?

  • Yes, if:
    1. It is solid
    2. It is naturally occurring
    3. It is Inorganic
    4. It has a characteristic chemical composition
    5. It has an orderly crystalline structure

Has chemical formula

  • Elements:
    • Copper is made up of copper atoms only
    • Carbon is made up of carbon atoms only

Atoms to minerals

Has a crystalline structure

  • Crystal Systems
    • Isometric
    • Tetragonal
    • Orthorhombic
    • Monoclinic
    • Triclinic
    • Hexagonal
    • Trigonal

Mineral Strength

  • How easily minerals break or deform is determined by the bonds
    • Hardness – ability to resist scratching or abrasion
    • Cleavage – tendency to break along planes of weak bonding
    • Fracture – random pattern of breakage
    • Tenacity – resistance to cutting, breaking, bending, and deformation
    • Mineral density - mass/volume (g/L)

Mohs Scale of Hardness

  • Relative hardness scale from 1 (Talc) to 10 (Diamond).
  • Index minerals used to determine relative hardness.
  • Comparison with common objects like fingernails, copper pennies, glass.

Mineral Cleavage vs Fracture

  • Cleavage: Breaks along planes of weak bonding, resulting in flat surfaces and repeated shapes.
  • Fracture: Random pattern of breakage due to equal bonds, resulting in irregular or conchoidal fractures.

Tenacity

  • Brittle: Shatters like glass (e.g., Quartz).
  • Malleable: Hammered into sheets (e.g., Copper).
  • Elastic: Deformable (e.g., Muscovite mica).
  • Sectile: Soft like wax, can be separated into layers with a knife (e.g., Gypsum).

Density and Specific Gravity

  • Density: Mass/volume ratio.
  • Specific gravity: Ratio of weight to the weight of an equal volume of water.

Optical Properties

  • Luster: Appearance in reflected light (metallic vs. non-metallic).
  • Color: Can vary, not always diagnostic.
  • Streak: Color of mineral in powdered form.
  • Ability to Transmit Light: Transparent, translucent, or opaque.

Other Properties

  • Taste: Halite tastes like salt.
  • Smell: Sulfur minerals smell like rotten eggs.
  • Elasticity/flexible/Malleability
  • Feel: Graphite feels greasy, talc feels soapy.
  • Double refraction
  • Magnetism
  • Reaction with hydrochloric acid: React with acid, then CO_3^{2-} is present.

Mineral composition

  • Silicates (silicon and oxygen)
  • Minerals
  • Nonsilicates

Classification of Minerals

  1. Silicates
  2. Non-silicates
  • Silicates are SiO_2 based minerals
  • Silicates make up 90% of earth's crust

Silicate vs Nonsilicate Minerals

  • Silicate Minerals
    • composed of silicate groups
    • Have highly complex structures
    • Can be divided into four major groups: isolated tetrahedra, chains of tetrahedra, sheets, and framework
  • Nonsilicate minerals
    • Minerals that do not contain silicate groups
    • Have comparatively less complex structures
    • Can be found in six different types as oxides, sulfides, sulfates, halides, phosphates and carbonates

Silicate Mineral Examples

  • Feldspar
  • Olivine
  • Mica
  • Quartz
  • Pyroxene

Nonsilicate Minerals

  • Halite
  • Spinel
  • Gypsum
  • Galena
  • Hematite
  • Pyrite
  • Calcite

Silicates

  • (silicon and oxygen)
  • Ferromagnesian
    • Biotite
    • Hornblende
    • Olivine
  • Nonferromagnesian
    • Muscovite (white mica)
    • Plagioclase (Na-Ca feldspar)
    • Orthoclase (K-feldspar)

Ferromagnesian Silicates

  • Augite
  • Olivine
  • Hornblende
  • Biotite

Nonferromagnesian Silicates

  • Quartz
  • Orthoclase
  • Plagioclase
  • Muscovite

Nonsilicates

  • Carbonates
    • Calcite
  • Sulfates
    • Gypsum
  • Oxides
    • Magnetite
    • Corundum
  • Sulfides
    • Galena
  • Phosphates
  • Halides
    • Halite
    • Fluorite
  • Native elements

Mineral: Nonsilicates: Carbonates and oxides

  • Aragonite
    • CaCO_3
  • Limonite
    • FeO(OH)

Mineral: Nonsilicates: Sulfates and sulfides

  • Chalcopyrite
    • CuFeS_2
  • Barite
    • BaSO_4

Mineral: Nonsilicates: Phosphates and halides

  • Atacamite
    • Cu_2CI(OH)
  • Apatite
    • Ca5(PO4)_3(F,CI, OH)

NATIVE ELEMENT MINERALS

  • Gold (Au)
  • Copper (Cu)
  • Silver (Ag)
  • Sulphur (S)

Earth's Crust Mineral Composition

  • (92% Silica mineral
  • Potassium feldspars 12%
  • Quartz 12%
  • Plagioclase feldspars 39%
  • Pyroxenes 11%
  • Nonsilicates 8%
  • Micas 5%
  • Clays 5%
  • Amphiboles 5%
  • Other silicates 3%

Mineral Formation

  • Crystallization
    1. Magma
    2. Water solutions
  • Composition determines solubility and melting point

Categories of mining

  1. oil and gas extraction (energy)
  2. coal mining (energy)
  3. metal ore mining (technology)
  4. nonmetallic mineral mining (construction)
  5. Quarrying (construction)

Mineral Resources and Ore Deposits

  • Mineral resources are occurrences of useful minerals that will eventually be extracted
  • Ore deposits are concentrations of metallic minerals that can be mined at a profit
  • Economic factors may change and influence a resource

Extractivism

  • Refers to the processes, ideology, and effects of natural resource extraction.
  • Under capitalist systems, extractivism tends to prioritise profit and economic growth over the well-being of communities and ecosystems
  • Disproportionately affecting marginalised and Indigenous populations who bear the brunt of environmental harm

Minerals: A Nonrenewable Resource

  • Renewable
    • Can be replenished in relatively short time spans
    • Corn, wind, water, etc.
  • Nonrenewable
    • Earth has fixed quantities
    • Fossil Fuels, Minerals, Ore, etc.

Mining: Pros and Cons

  • Pros
    • Energy
    • Cell phones
    • Modern technology
  • Cons
    • Erosion
    • Sinkholes
    • Loss of biodiversity
    • Contamination of water
    • Contamination of soil
    • Carbon emissions which contributes to climate change
    • Mountaintop removal
    • Public health
    • Deforestation

Bingham Canyon Copper Mine

  • Large open-pit copper mine in Utah.
  • Owned by Rio Tinto.
  • Pit is over 0.75 mile (1.2 km) deep, 2.5 miles (4 km) wide, covering 1,900 acres (7.7 km²).
  • Largest man-made excavation.

Manefay landslides 2013

  • Landslides carried about 145 million tons of waste rock into the bottom of the open pit
  • The largest non-volcanic landslide in modern North American history,
  • Caused an earthquake (2.5)

Rio Tinto (river)

  • Extremely acidic (pH 2)
    • 100,000 x more acidic than water
  • Very high levels of iron and heavy metals

What happens when mining starts?

  • Erosion
  • Sinkholes
  • Loss of biodiversity
  • Contamination of soil, groundwater, and surface water
  • Mt top removal in W. VA

Fracking and Earthquakes

  • Beginning in 2009, Oklahoma experienced a surge in seismicity.
  • While these earthquakes have been induced by oil and gas related process, few of these earthquakes were induced by fracking.
  • The largest earthquake known to be induced by hydraulic fracturing in Oklahoma was a M3.6 earthquakes in 2019.
  • Majority of earthquakes in Oklahoma are caused by the industrial practice known as "wastewater disposal".
    Oklahoma Earthquakes, 2000-2015:
  • Seismicity increase is due to fluid injection into deep rock formations.
  • The largest magnitude earthquake in Oklahoma caused injury and damage to buildings
  • September 2016, Pawnee Sedimentary strata

Mining: Improving the Process

  • Extract using cleaner tech
  • Stay away from the most harmful practices (Mt removal)
  • Use less resources/minerals (planned obsolescence)
  • Recycle more
  • Recycle better
  • Regulations that prioritize nature

Planned Obsolescence

  • Designing products to break quickly or become obsolete in the short to mid-term.
  • Encourages sales of new products and upgrades, a practice that has been banned in some countries.

Solution for resource depletion?

  • Decrease demand for land-based mining and the use of child labor.
  • Use less resources?
  • Buy used and repair when broken
  • Recycle better
  • Any other way?

Metal recycling of iphones and batteries

  • Apple has announced a major acceleration of its work to expand recycled materials across its products - including new 2025 targets to use 100 percent recycled cobalt in all Apple-designed batteries; all magnets in Apple devices will be composed of entirely recycled rare earth elements; and all Apple-designed printed … Apr 17, 2023
  • iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max contain 20 percent recycled or renewable content, reducing iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max emissions by nearly 6 percent.

What are the options?

  • Ecuadorians reject oil drilling in the Amazon, ending operations in a protected area
  • Regulations that prioritize nature

Mining and Energy Production

  • Case study: Energy Production
  • Categories of Mining
    • oil and gas extraction
    • coal mining

Can we use Nuclear power to generate our electricity?

  • What can we use as fuel?
  • Nukes?
  • 2023 ESTIMATED GLOBAL NUCLEAR WARHEAD INVENTORIES
  • Nuclear-armed states possess over 12,500 nuclear warheads
    • nearly 90% belong to Russia and the United States.
    • Approximately 9,600 warheads are in military service, with the rest awaiting dismantlement.

Nukes

  • If all Nukes went off
    • The energy released by their simultaneous detonation wouldn’t destroy the Earth.
    • It would, however, make a crater around 10 km across and 2 km deep.

Nuclear Winter

  • This ‘aerosol’ of particles would reduce the amount of heat reaching the surface from the Sun, producing a so-called nuclear winter with huge environmental impact.
  • The nuclear explosion would also unleash a pulse of electromagnetic energy that would destroy all electronics

Megatons to Megawatts

  • A total of 325 tonnes of Russian ex-military uranium (13,000 nuclear warheads) has so far been downblended for use in civilian nuclear power stations
  • By the time it was completed in 2013 the equivalent of 20,000 nuclear warheads were downblended, according to USEC

Safest and Cleanest Energy Sources

  • Death rate from accidents and air pollution
    • Measured as deaths per terawatt-hour of electricity production.
    • 1 terawatt-hour is the annual electricity consumption of 150,000 people in the EU.
  • Greenhouse gas emissions
    • Measured in emissions of CO_2-equivalents per gigawatt-hour of electricity over the lifecycle of the power plant.
    • 1 gigawatt-hour is the annual electricity consumption of 150 people in the EU.

Routine Discharges of Coal-Fired Power Plant

  • The fly ash emitted from burning coal for electricity by a power plant carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy.

Nuclear Fission

  • The neutron hits the nucleus of a uranium atom.
  • The water in the reactor vessel slows the neutrons; this allows the neutron to collide with the nucleus.
  • The complete fission of 1kg of uranium-235 provides 3,000,000 times more thermal energy than burning 1 kg of coal.
  • This is followed by a fission process in which energy is released in the form of heat and radiation.
  • This produces fission products, and new neutrons escape which in turn can reach other uranium nuclei.
  • This happens repeatedly, which is why it is referred to as a chain reaction.

Nuclear fuel cycle

  • How do we dispose of nuclear waste?
  • At or near surface
  • Geological repositories
  • Security
    • Centralized versus Distributed
    • Safe with reduced active measures

Nuclear waste as fuel?

  • USA treats used nuclear fuel as waste
  • ~97% of it could be used as fuel in advanced reactor
  1. Used plutonium recycling to generate electricity
  2. Reduced the radiological footprint of their waste = more electricity AND less waste

How long could Humanity last on nuclear power alone?

  • Total world energy consumption of primary energy in 2019 was about 584 exajoules (BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2020)
  • With breeder reactors, uranium and thorium can make 100% of the world's primary energy for about 4 billion years.

when will the sun engulf the earth

  • Astronomers have gotten a sneak peek at what could be Earth's ultimate fate in about 5 billion years when the sun reaches the end of its life and engulfs the solar system's inner planets - including our own.

Breeder reactor

  • 1950s tech
  • Nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes = Engine that makes Fuel
  • Can be fueled with more-abundant isotopes of uranium and thorium.
  • They extract more energy out of fuel
  • Interest declined after the 1960s, as more uranium reserves were found, and new methods of uranium enrichment reduced fuel costs.

Ethics of mining

  • Mining in Congo and Coltan
  • Li mining for batteries and the salt flats of S. America
  • Ocean mining

EV Batteries

  • The key minerals in an EV battery
  • Graphite 52KG 28.1%
  • Aluminum 35KG 18.9%
  • Nickel 29KG 15.7%
  • Manganese 20KG 10.8%
  • Cobalt 20KG 10.8%
  • Copper 10KG 5.4%
  • Steel 8KG 4.3%
  • Lithium 6KG 3.2%
  • Iron 5KG 2.7%

Mobile Devices - Mineral Resources Program

  • Electronics and Circuitry
    • The content of copper in a mobile device far exceeds the amount of any other metal. Copper conducts electricity and heat and comes from the source mineral chalcopyrite.
    • Tetrahedrite is a primary source of silver. Silver-based inks on composite boards create electrical pathways through a device.
    • Silicon, very abundant in the Earth's crust, is produced from the source mineral quartz and is the basis of integrated circuits.
    • Arsenopyrite is a source of arsenic, which is used in radio frequency and power amplifiers.
    • Tantalum, from the source mineral tantalite, is added to capacitors to regulate voltage and improve the audio quality of a device.
    • Wolframite is a source of tungsten, which acts as a heat sink and provides the mass for mobile phone vibration.
  • Battery
    • Spodumene and subsurface brines are the sources of lithium used in cathodes of lithium-ion batteries.
    • Graphite is used for the anodes of lithium-ion batteries because of its electrical and thermal conductivity.
  • Speakers and Vibration
    • Bastnaesite is a source of rare-earth elements used to produce magnets in speakers, microphones, and vibration motors.
  • Display
    • A mobile device's glass screen is very durable because glassmakers combine its main ingredient, silica (silicon dioxide or quartz) sand, with ceramic materials and then add potassium.
    • Layers of indium-tin-oxide are used to create transparent circuits in the display. Tin is also the ingredient in circuit board solder, and cassiterite is a primary source of tin.
    • Gallium provides light emitting diode (LED) backlighting. Bauxite is the primary source of this commodity.
    • Sphalerite is the source of indium (used in the screen's conductive coating) and germanium (used in displays and LEDs).

Congo Mining

  • DRC, the world's biggest tantalum producer, has increased its tantalum-mining activities in recent years. In total, it put out 980 metric tons (MT) of the metal in 2023, producing nearly 41 percent of the world's mined supply.