PSNB+4.3

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=4.3 Mineral Resources=

Vocabulary

 * Gemstone**: A hard, colorful, glassy mineral.
 * Ore**: A rock that has enviornmental uses, that are useful.
 * Smelting**: A process- When the ore is separated by what is and is not useful.
 * Alloy**: A combination of two or more metallic materials.

Outline
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The Uses of Minerals

 * Minerals are the source of many precious metals
 * Gemstones**
 * Gemstones are shiny, rare, colorful stones
 * Once a gemtone is cut, it is a gem
 * Gems are used mostly for jewelery, decoration, mechanical parts, and grinding
 * Metals**
 * Metals have a lot of uses
 * Metals began as minerals in the crust

Ores

 * A rock that contains metal/economically useful mineral inside it is an ore
 * Most metals do not occur in pure form (are usually in ores, waiting to be removed)

**Mining**

 * There are strip mies, open pit mines, and shaft mines
 * Geologists give maps to miners on where to mine
 * In strip mines they scrape away soil to reveal ores
 * in open pit, they dig giant deep pits to remove all ores.
 * Some open pits can get gigantic!
 * In shaft mines, they have a tunnel of networks that follow the ore veins
 * Mining is very bad for the environment
 * soil left over from mining can "rot" and land is also worn down
 * Laws have been made to protect environment from this

Smelting

 * After mining ore, metals must be removed using smelting
 * They melt the ores, separating the melted metal from oxygen
 * people remove impurities to make it hard steel



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