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Vocabulary
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 * Gemstone:** A mineral that is hard, colorful, and has an extraordinary shiny luster.
 * Ore:** A type of rock that has a metal or a mineral that is economically useful.
 * Smelting:** The development which ore is liquefied to split the useful metal from other elements.
 * Alloy:** A solid mixture of two or more metals.
 * Strip Mining:** Earthmoving equipment scrapes away soil to expose ore.
 * Open Pit Mining:** Miners use giant earthmoving equipment to dig a tremendous pit.
 * Shaft Mines:** Often has a network of tunnels that extend deep into the ground, following the veins of ore.

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The Uses of Minerals

 * Gemstones
 * People thinks gemstones are great because of their color, luster, durability, and rareness.
 * Gems are used for jewelry and decorations.
 * Once a gemstone is cut and polished, the gemstone is called a gem.
 * Metals
 * Some minerals are the exact source of the minerals that we see like aluminum or copper.
 * Metals are very useful because they can be stretched into wire, and flattened into sheets without breaking.
 * Other useful minerals
 * There are lots of other useful minerals besides metal and gemstones.
 * Talc can be ground up to be talcum powder
 * Quartz can be used to make microscopes.
 * Gypsum is used to make wallboard, cement, and stucco.

Ores

 * A rock that contains a metal or a useful mineral is called an ore.

Prospecting

 * A prospecter is anyone that searches for ore deposits.

Mining

 * The geologist's map of an ore deposit helps miners decide how to mine the ground.
 * There are three ways of mining
 * Strip Mines
 * Strip mines uses earthmoving equiptment to scrape away soil to expose ore.
 * Open Pit Mines
 * Miners dig a big hole using earthmoving equiptment to remove ore deposits
 * Shaft Mines
 * For ore deposits that occur in veins, prospecters use shaft mines.

Smelting

 * Ores must be processed before the metals contained in the ore can be used.
 * This process is called smelting
 * In smelting, ore is melted to seperate the useful metal from the useless rocks or minerals.

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