Chapter 16 Mining and Mineral Resources

What set standards to minimize the surface effects of coal mining on the environment?

Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977

What data about an area can be collected from airborne observations and combined to indicate the best locations to look for ore deposits?

Aerial photographs combine with airborne measurements of gravity, magnesium, and radio activity are helpful when exploring the ore deposits

What usually must be separated from ore minerals have to say your mind in order to obtain the value substances they contain?

Gangue minerals, or minerals with no commercial value, must be separating order to recover the valuable substances ore minerals contain.

Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)

Pollution caused when sulfuric acid and dangerous dissolved materials such as lead, arsenic, and cadmium wash from coal and metal mines into nearby lakes and streams that harms and kills aquatic life.

What is reclamation?

Reclamation is the process by which mine operators must return mined land to its original or better condition after mining is completed.

bond forfeiture program

A system in-which a mining company is required to post funds before beginning a mining project.

What are some materials that are produced by quarrying?

Building stone such as granite, lime stone, and marble, as well as aggregates such as sand, gravel, and crushed rock, are mined by quarrying. Quarries also produce clay, gypsum, and talc.

two or more atoms held together by chemical bonds

Compound molecule

What regulates the release of hazardous substances into the air, soil, and water by mining?

Comprehensive Response Compensation and Liability Act

How can surface money completely transform ecosystems, even after we reclamation?

During sulfur mining, and soil is removed from its site, or plant life is stripped away. Therefore, the entirely new ecosystem may develop after the soil is put back.

Compare the properties of metals and nonmetals.

Metals conduct electricity, have shiny surfaces, and are a pet. Non-minerals tend to be good electrical insulators, may have shiny or dole surfaces, and may allow light to pass through them.

What distinguished native elements from most minerals? Give two examples of minerals that exist in nature as native elements

Native elements are found in nature as elemental substances, not compounds. Gold, silver, and copper exist as native.

How is a minor and supportive when mining coal using the room-and-pillar method?

Pillars are left out rooms in a mine to ensure support for the roof. These are removed last starting from the point farthest back in the mine as coal removal is completed. This helps ensure the safety of the Mineworkers.

What is the purpose of smelting? Describe the steps that take place in the smelting ore?

Smelting is a method for removing impurities from metal or in producing pure metals. Ore is crushed and melted it very high temperatures in the furnace. The melting mass is mixed with flux that begins with impurities to form it's like a top the molten metal. The refined metal sinks to the bottom of the mixture.

How must soil be handled during surface coal mining to minimize environmental damage?

Soil must be removed from the uppermost layer downward. Care must be taken to make sure that the upper, nutrient rich layers are not buried beneath lower soil layers.

What are wildlife habitats protected by?

The Endangered Species Act

What is not a regulation mining companies must follow?

The hazard products act

Why is acid mine drainage harmful to the environment?

The reaction of oxygen with sulfur in water that seeps through mine waste dissolved minerals and other toxic substances and carry them into the watershed, where they harm aquatic life and contaminate drinking water.

What potential environmental problems caused by smelting process must be controlled? How can this be done?

The smelting process produces gases such as sulfur dioxide. Sulfur which gases become a serious environmental problem if they are allowed to escape into the environment. Therefore, they should be captured within the plant.

What is the purpose of drilling test holes around an ore deposit during mineral exploration if a deposit is found to have ore of a high enough grade

The test holes are used to determine the three-dimensional extent of it or so that estimate of the level value of the deposit can be made.

How are or deposits known as veins formed?

Veins of minerals are formed when the minerals crystallize out of hydrothermal solutions that have worked into rock fractures.

Acid mine drainage is contaminated what?

Water that results when acid dissolved toxic minerals that exist in mine waste

A quarry also could be called

an open pit

Where do evaporates most commonly form

arid regions where evaporation rates are high

Minerals are made up of ____________________ that are arranged in a regular, repeating geometric pattern

atoms

What can surface mining cause?

both air and noice pollution

What must hot subsurface waters contain in order to be considered hydrothermal solutions?

dissolved minerals

A floating barge on which buckets fixed onto a conveyor excavate sediments is called a(n) ____________________

dredge

Large piles of excess rock from mines are called ___________.

dumps

What is one property that may be used to distinguish metallic from nonmetallic minerals?

electrical conductivity

Metallic minerals conduct ____________________

electricity

What is not one of the ways that ore minerals may form?

flooding of empty stream beds and rivers

A material that bonds with impurities and separates them from molten metal during smelting is called a(n) ____________________

flux

Dredging streambeds may be an effective technique for mining

gold

What would not likely be minded using solution mining.?

gypsum

The minerals that conduct electricity well are called

metallic minerals

Through _____, mining companies can identify areas where there may be valuable mineral resources.

mineral exploration

gangue minerals

minerals that have no commerical value

Placer deposits are surface mineral deposits that have been concentrated by what?

movement of wind and water

What can contaminate a river during dredging?

muddy sediments

Gold, silver, and copper that occur in elemental form are called ______________

native elements

Gemstones

nonmetallic minerals that are valued for their beauty and rarity rather than their usefulness

What is not a method of subsurface mining?

open pit mining

The first step in finding a(n) ________ is exploring rock for mineralization

ore deposit

What type of minerals contain valuable substances?

ore minerals

What is not a characteristic of a mineral?

organic or naturally occurring

Rocks that cover coal seams near the surface

overburden

The collapse of what can lead to subsidence?

pillars in abandoned mines

An open pit used to mine minerals near the subsurface coal mines are called___________.

quarry

The land recovery process required of mine operators is called __________.

relaclamation

What is reclamation the process of?

returning land to its original or better condition after mining

Networks of entries in subsurface coal mines are called ________________

rooms

What is the layer of impurities on top of molten that forms during smelting is called?

slag

The process where crushed ore is melted at high temperatures to separate impurities from molten metal is called ___________.

smelting

Solution mining is an economical mining method if mineral ores are _______ in water

soluble

Who issue violations to mining companies that do not comply with regulation?

state agencies

From whom must mining companies obtain permits before mining a site?

state and federal agencies

Bends in rivers often have _________________________

stream placers

The sinking of regions of the ground with little or no horizontal movement is called __________.

subsidence

Name a water contaminant that can cause acid mine drainage?

sulfuric acid

What do the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act erasure?

that contaminants from mines do not threaten water quality.

What is the first step in surface mining?

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

A serious hazard of coal mining that can ignite and possibly burn for years is/are ______________________________

underground mine fires

Ore deposits formed in cracks in rocks are called ____________________

veins