Mining
Materials commonly recovered by mining include bauxite, coal, copper, diamonds, iron (from haematite and limonite), gold, lead, manganese, magnesium, nickel, phosphate, platinum, salt, silver, tin, titanium, uranium, and zinc.
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2 Mining techniques 3 Environmental effects 4 See also 5 Further reading |
The first mining operation on Earth may have been the turquoise mine operated by the ancient Egyptians at Wady Maghareh on the Sinai Peninsula. Turquoise was also mined in pre-Columbian America in the Cerillos Mining District in New Mexico, where a mass of rock 200 feet in depth and 300 feet in width was removed with stone tools; the mine dump covers 20 acres.
Mining is often devastating to the environment of the local area. This is due to the massive scale of the rearrangement of minerals and chemicals that are in the earth, causing unnatural concentrations of such elements. Combined with the effects of water and the new 'channels' created for water to travel through, collect in, and its contact with these chemicals, a situation is created where mass-scale contamination can occur.
Some examples of mine problems:
History
Mining techniques
Bioleaching is the application of naturally available bacteria to extract metals from their ore.Environmental effects
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See also
Further reading