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MINING
Extraction of Natural Resources
Natural resource
A material source of wealth, such as
timber, fresh water, or a mineral deposit,
that occurs in a natural state and has
economic value.
Resource
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A concentration of naturally occurring
solid, liquid, or gaseous material
in or on the Earth's crust in such form and
amount that economic extraction of a
commodity from the concentration is
currently or potentially feasible. USGS
Need for, Use of Resources
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Need – Must have to survive
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Want/Convenience – makes life easier
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Food, water, shelter, clothing
Transportation, phone, electronics
What do you feel you MUST have
(In today’s world, we use much more than
previous generations.)
Raw materials for needs/wants are either
grown, or extracted from the Earth
What are you wearing, carrying,
using today?
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Clothing
Food, drink and containers
Jewelry, glasses, contacts
Electronic Devices
Transportation
Electricity
Food and water
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Energy is required to grow, harvest,
transport, and prepare our food
Energy is required to purify and transport
our water supply.
Most of out energy comes from petroleum,
natural gas and coal.
U.S. Electricity ONLY
•Comes from:
•Natural gas
•Coal
•Nuclear
•Renewables (total)
•https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3
33.8%
30.4%
19.7%
14.9%
Clothing
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Natural fabrics
Require production energy
Synthetic Fabrics
-Nylon is derived from coal
-Polyester and many others come from
petroleum
Jewelry
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Gold, silver, gemstones – are
Elements or minerals valued due to
rarity, special properties, beauty.
Petroleum is the raw material for
many plastics
DID YOU KNOW?—
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—it takes more than 33 elements and
minerals to make a computer?
Think of something you need,
have.
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How was the item made?
What are the raw materials that make up
this item
How did you get the item?
Where Does It All Come From?
“If it can’t be grown, it has to be
mined.”
 “Everything we have and everything
we use comes from natural
resources.”

What are these items made of,
where do the raw materials come
from?
Your Use of Materials
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Direct
You are consuming, wearing, using with your
own hands, feet.
Indirect
- Something that is used to manufacture or
bring you materials for direct use.
- Part of the countries infrastructure – you
benefit, “even if you don’t know about it/use it”
What is mined/extracted that you
use daily?
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Oil/Natural Gas, Coal
Precious elements and gems
– gold, silver, platinum, diamond
Metals
Ferrous – containing iron
Non-ferrous – aluminum
Continue mined/extracted that you
use daily?
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Industrial materials and minerals
Borates, phosphate, zeolites
Building materials
Sand, stone, cement, gypsum
II. History of Mining
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A. Ages of Mankind
Historic ages based on composition of tools,
and resource mined.
Stone Age (-lithic)
Prior to 3300BC
Bronze Age (Copper and Tin) 3300BC – 1200BC
Iron Age
1200BC – 600BC
B. New Mexico Native American
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Native Americans mined or quarried:
Obsidian, Flint (Arrowheads, tools)
Oxidized minerals (Pigments)
Turquoise (Jewelry, Trade)
Stone (Buildings)
Chaco Canyon
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Masonry – building stone
CERRILLOS HILLS HISTORIC PARK
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Tri-Cultural Use of the Cerrillos Mines
Native Americans mined turquoise as of
600AD. Galena, a lead mineral, was also
mined.
Late 1500’s to early 1700’s Spanish mined
silver, lead.
Late 1800’s U.S. mined silver, turquoise.
C. Brief History of WesternU.S.
Mining
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Many Americans ventured west starting in
the 1840’s to ranch, explore, seek fortune.
- (1871, Horace Greeley)
“Can you chop? Can you plow? Can you mow?”
Greeley concluded, “Having mastered these, gather up your family,
and Go West!”)
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Prospecting – to search for or explore (a
region) for valuable materials.
Prospecting
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The simplest technique to extract gold from placer ore is
panning.
Sand, gravel (ore) is placed in a large metal or plastic
pan.
Combined with a generous amount of water.
Agitated so that the gold particles settle to the bottom.
The lighter waste material washes over the side of the
pan, leaving the gold behind.
Once a placer deposit is located by gold panning, the
miner usually shifts to equipment that can treat large
volumes of sand and gravel more quickly and efficiently.
Early Prospectors
Properties of Gold
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Gold is a very rare substance making up
only five ten-millionths of the Earth's outer
layer.
Imagine 10 million M&M’s in one place and
only 5 of them were made of gold!
Its rarity and its physical properties have
made it one of the most prized of Earth's
natural resources.
Properties of Gold
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Malleable, ductile, soft, good conductor of
heat and electricity, non-corrosive.
High density and specific gravity
Density – mass per unit volume
Specific gravity –
density material/density of water
Specific Gravity
Gold
Silver
Granite
Gravel with sand
19.2
10.4
1.6
1.9
Precious metals are much heavier than usual
sediments, so fragments, flakes, nuggets
stay in the prospector’s pan
Placer mining
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Placer mining refers to the mining of
alluvial deposits for minerals
The name derives from Spanish placera,
meaning "alluvial sand."
Valuable minerals weather, erode from
solid rock
Become part of unconsolidated sediments
in streams or valleys
Are concentrated over centuries, millennia
due to the action of water.
Gold Nuggets!
Gold particles will be:
Smaller and heavier than
adjacent particles
“Hard rock”, or lode mining
Once placers were found, minerals
were traced to their outcrops, digging and
trenching follow. If enough gold or other
valuable material exists, larger operations
follow, including open-pit, or underground
mining.
A variety of modern exploration
methods are used to locate deposits.
Underground Mining
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In the 1800’s, this was extremely hard and
dangerous work.
Prior to mechanization, all work was done
by hand and candle light, or burning
carbide, or kerosene.
Low oxygen, explosions, fires, and falls
could all be part of the work day.
Drill and Blast
Major Mining “Bonanzas”
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California
Comstock Nevada
“blue clay”
Butte, Montana
1849
1859
1865
1880
Deadwood, S. Dakota 1876
gold
silver
both
copper
gold
Historic New Mexico Mining
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NM – arid, isolated, and actively hostile
Apaches, kept interest in the area low
Not until about 1860 that prospectors and
miners were attracted to the region.
Mining in the Territory was suspended
during the Confederate invasion 1861-62.
Restarted post - Civil War
New Mexico Mining Booms
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1865
1866
1866
1877
1878
1912
1950
White Mtns Ruidoso
Elizabethtown
Magdalena
Hillsboro
Lake Valley
Grant County Silver City
Grants
gold
gold
silver-lead
gold
silver
copper
uranium
Modern Mining
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Today, companies mine materials both on
the surface and underground.
Most mines must be large to be profitable.
Economy of Scale:
Reduction in cost per unit resulting from
increased production, realized through
operational efficiencies. As production
increases, the cost of producing each
additional unit falls.
Mining in New Mexico
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Mining is vital to the state's economy, adding
$2.5 billion in total economic output (2015).
NM was fifteenth nationally in total non-fuel
mineral production value.
Tenth in the production of coal.
Second in copper
We lead Nation in the production of potash,
perlite and zeolites.
N. M. Mineral Summary, 2015
Commodity
Production
Coal
Copper
Ind. Min.
Potash
Aggregate
19.6 mill. tons
397 mill. lbs
1.4 mill. tons
1.4 mill. tons
8 mill. tons
Gold **
Silver **
Value
$ 691 mill.
$ 997 mill.
$ 87 mill.
$ 238 mill.
$ 63 mill.
20,438 troy oz.
56,938 troy oz.
Employment
1,341
1,878
413
1,194
837
$ 24 mill.
$ 895 thou.
Rank
10
2
1
Mining in New Mexico
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Coal
NW NM Farmington
Copper
SW NM Silver City
Potash
SE NM
Carlsbad
Industrial Minerals
Various
Aggregate
Various
WHAT HAPPENS TO A MINERAL
RESOURCE BEFORE IT IS USED?

EXPLORATION. First, the resource must
be found! The people who look for these
resources are called geologists. They
explore the Earth to find deposits that can
be produced.
WHAT HAPPENS TO A MINERAL
RESOURCE BEFORE IT IS USED?

PLAN/PERMIT
Once an ore deposit is found, work
must be done to determine if it is
economic to mine, the best methods for
mining, and to get approval from federal
and state governments.
WHAT HAPPENS TO A MINERAL
RESOURCE BEFORE IT IS USED?
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EXTRACTION. After the resources are
located, they must be removed from the
Earth. This process occurs through either
surface or underground mines.
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Waste is rock that must be mined, moved in
order to get to the valuable material
Ore is rock/mineral that contains material that
can be economically extracted from the rock.
WHAT HAPPENS TO A MINERAL
RESOURCE BEFORE IT IS USED?
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PROCESSING. Valuable minerals are
often hidden as tiny particles in ordinary
looking rock when they are taken from the
Earth. The valuable minerals are removed
from the rock and concentrated. This is
called processing or crushing, grinding,
and milling.
Crushing
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The large pieces of rock/mineral are then
reduced in size, by being fed into jaw, or
cone or gyratory crushers, machines that
break them up by different means,
sometimes as small as ¼ inch.
Grinding
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Some ore must be reduced to an even smaller
size, and a second grinding stage is needed.
Flotation
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Some ores can be separated using gravity and
moving water to separate ore from waste
Oxidation
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Some refractory ores have too many
sulfide minerals in them and must be
oxidized in processes known as roasting.
This can include the use of a combination
of heat/pressure/caustic chemicals.
Cyanide Leaching
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Some mines spray cyanide on crushed ore to
dissolve and collect gold and silver
Smelting
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Chemical reduction, or smelting, is a
form of extractive metallurgy. The main
use of smelting is to produce a metal from
its ore.
Refining
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Refining is the process of purification of
a a natural resource that is almost in a
usable form, but which is more useful in
its pure form.
Most gold/silver mines send their smelted
product to a company that specializes in
refining, for purification.
WHAT HAPPENS TO A MINERAL
RESOURCE BEFORE IT IS USED?
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6. MANUFACTURING. After the mineral
and energy resources are refined, these
raw materials are made into products.
7. MARKETING. Once the products are
made, they are sold or marketed
Companies Pay to Extract Energy Raw
Materials
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Revenues from federal oil, gas, and coal
leasing provide returns to U.S. taxpayers
as well as State governments. In 2016, $6
billion in oil and gas revenues were paid to
the U.S. Treasury, and coal leases
accounted for over $900 million in
revenues, of which 50 percent were paid
to State governments.
Energy Extraction
th
5
th
7
New Mexico:
in oil and
in
natural gas production in U.S.
th
10
New Mexico is
in coal
production in U.S.
RECLAMATION
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The process of reclamation includes
maintaining water and air quality,
minimizing flooding, erosion and damage
to wildlife and aquatic habitats caused by
surface mining.
The final step in this process is often
topsoil replacement and revegetation with
suitable plant species.
During Mining
After Mining
Reclamation
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Reclamation laws vary by what is mined or
extracted, and whether federal or state
government has the primary jurisdiction.
Conservation
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The conservation ethic - resource use,
allocation, exploitation, and protection.
Wise management and use of our
resources
Sustainable development - use natural
resources without depleting them, provide
for human needs without causing longterm environmental damage
RECYCLE
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Recycling is the reprocessing of old
materials into new products.
Prevent the waste of potentially useful
materials.
Reduce the consumption of fresh raw
materials.
Reducing energy usage
Reducing pollution by reducing the need
for "conventional" waste disposal.