Ever asked yourself how you interact with mineral resources in daily life? They are everywhere. As soon as you wake up, at breakfast, on the way to school, in the classroom, on your lunch break, in the computer room, in the street, when you’re having fun, at dinner time, in the bathroom, and when you go to bed.
They are almost everywhere. Mineral resources are precious and essential to daily life.
They are used in all sectors of activity, valuable for their incredibly diverse physical and chemical properties, such as, for example, solidity, conductivity, and color.
This is why the objects we use daily are packed with a range of different mineral resources. Do you know, for example, how many different minerals are contained in an alarm clock, a bicycle, or a digital tablet?
A can, a car, a tube of toothpaste? Mineral resources are necessary to create objects we use every day.
Among the main mineral resources used we can mention minerals containing copper, as this metal has excellent conductive properties, minerals containing cobalt as this improves power storage in electric vehicle batteries, minerals containing tungsten, as it is highly resistant, and rare earth elements, as they contribute to the energy transition, and sand, which is the third most consumed substance by mankind.
Where do mineral resources come from?
Now let’s turn to the questions and answers! Where do mineral resources come from? They come from underground, extracted from mines and quarries by humans. The geologist is specialized in the study of underground matter.
They are extracted from quarries, particularly for sand, gravel, and rocks, or from mines to extract gold, copper, or iron, for example.
The earth’s crust is made up of mineral resources. Mineral resources of valuable materials are extracted from below the earth’s surface. They occur naturally and are non-renewable.
Which means that they cannot be replaced. There are three types of mineral resources. They are fuel minerals, metallic minerals, and nonmetallic. Metallic minerals include gold and silver.
Examples of nonmetallic minerals include limestone and granite. Some examples of mineral resources include petroleum. Petroleum is also called crude oil in its unrefined state. It is a thick and black liquid. Dean and columbite teen is used for coating objects to prevent corrosion.
Columbite is used for manufacturing heat-resistant steels in Nigeria. Teen and columbite can be found in a pleasant state. Limestone.
Limestone is a sedimentary rock mineral that is composed mostly of calcium carbonate.
Gold
Gold is a soft and shiny metal. For years gold has been used in the production of jewelry and as a means of exchange. In Nigeria, gold can be found in many states.
Granite
Granite can be used in the production of tiles. In Nigeria, it can be found in cross river, and ocean states. Mineral resources serve as raw materials for industries.
For example, lead is used for producing pencils. Limestone is used for manufacturing cement. Iron ore is used for making cutlass, nails, and machine parts.
Tin is used for making tin, foils, and food containers. Copper is used for making fans. Coal tar is used for road surfacing.
Mineral resources provide income and revenue for the government. Exploration and exploitation of minerals provide employment opportunities.
Today we learned that mineral resources are valuable materials that are extracted from below the earth’s surface. Some examples of mineral resources include petroleum, granite, and gold.
Mineral resources can be found in many states across Nigeria. The earth is made up of hard substances called rocks. Mountains are made of rocks. Rocks are found in the rivers and in the seas.
Rocks are of many kinds. They have different colors. Some rocks are hard and some rocks are soft. Diamond, granite, sandstone, and marble are some examples of hard rocks.
Diamond is the hardest rock. Granite is a hard rock. It is used to make statues. It is also used in the flooring of houses and in kitchen countertops. Sandstone is a popular building material from ancient times.
It is easy to carve. Marble is a hard rock. It is used for producing sculptures and ornamental objects. It is also used in the flooring of houses. The purest marble is white. Taj Mahal is built using white marble.
Coal, slate, graphite, and chalk. Steam locomotive coal is also used in industries’ blackboards. It is used in the flooring of houses and also to make roofs of houses. Graphite is a soft rock.
It is used for making pencil leads. The greasy nature of graphite makes it a good lubricant. Minerals are found in rocks, sands, and soils. Minerals have different shapes, sizes, and colors.
Mineralogists are those who study metals like gold, silver, copper, platinum, and iron. Quartz, sulfur, talc, mica, and china clay are other minerals. People use minerals to make buildings, tools, cosmetics pots, etc.
In other words, geology! How are mineral resources created? Mountains, basins, and oceans are created by the movement of tectonic plates. For example, when two tectonic plates collide, this can form a mountain range.
But are mineral resources really indispensable?
Yes. These are indispensable at the moment.
For this reason, they must be used responsibly and within reason. Mineral resources available today took tens to hundreds of millions of years to form.