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