Mining and Mineral Resources

Solar evaporation is practical in order to obtain salt from sea water in climates where rainfall is exceeded by

Evaporation

Which of the following is not a way that ore minerals may form?

Flooding of empty streambeds and rivers

Nonmetallic minerals prized mainly for their beauty, rarity, or durability are called

Gemstones

Dredging streambeds may be an effective technique for mining

Gold

Minerals concentrated by wind and water movement into surface deposits

Placer deposits

Open pit used to mine materials near the surface

Quarry

Process of returning land to its original or better condition after mining

Reclamation

What is the arrangement of atoms in a mineral?

Regular, repeating geometric patterns

Sand, gravel, and crushed rock

Aggregates

Two or more metals that are combined

Alloy

A serious hazard of coal mining is

An underground mine fire

Before mining a site, a mining company must do all of the following except

Cut into a section of the longwall

Which of the following is not affected when soil is removed from a surface mine?

Deep coal seams

Which of the following is one reason why undersea mining has been largely unsuccessful to date?

Deposits at great water depths are difficult to work

The wall of a coal seam

Long wall

Mining companies can identify areas of valuable mineral resources by

Mining exploration

Minerals that contain valuable substances

Ore minerals

Process by which crushed ore is melted at high temperatures to separate impurities from molten metal

Smelting

The sinking of regions of the ground with little or no horizontal movement

Subsidence

Mining method used when ore deposits are located close to Earth's surfaca

Surface mining

The first step in surface coal mining is

To remove and set aside the soil that covers the area to be mined