The Boundless Resources

Abstract

The riches of the planet on which we live and its geological variety are truly amazing. Any part of the earth’s crust is made up of larger or smaller quantities of nearly all the different metallic and non-metallic elements. However, the concentration of the metals is generally too low to allow economic exploitation. One must therefore search for areas where past geological conditions have led to a high concentration of particular metals, either as surface outcrops or as underground deposits. Active prospecting is thus necessary to reveal new, rich deposits and most of these can only be located currently by advanced geological techniques. When a deposit of minerals is of sufficient abundance to allow economical extraction it is called an ore. Methods of exploitation vary widely depending on the depth and extension of the deposit, the stability and hardness of the rock in which the ores are found and other geological features. They are obviously of a much more complicated nature when surface mining is not possible, making the drilling of shafts and the installation of hoists and ventilation or air conditioning systems necessary. The excavation of the rock masses containing the metal normally involves drilling and blasting followed by the loading and hauling of the broken material to a crusher.