Facts and Figures

These are a few different figures of how much and what minerals can be found across the world.

Different Minerals found in what places across the world

This shows how much money was made from coal and other materials in the U.S..

Strip Mining

                                                              Surface Mining

          Surface mining is when miners take dirt away from the surface of the earth but they can only do this if the source is relatively near the surface. But there is a new study that companies are doing about this it's called surface strip mining, that's where miners dig up a long surface of the earth to get the resource and when they've got as much as they can get and then put back all the dirt they had taken so it can be replanted.

What they do is mine the materials from the ground and then replace the dirt taken away from
the ground where the material was.

Underground Mining

     Underground mining is what companies have to do when the mineral is to deep underground for them to do a strip mine. Underground mining is much more harmful to the environment and more dangerous to the workers. But their are two forms of underground mining in-room and pillar mining in-room is when they get this machine and put it against a wall and it digs into the wall and takes out the material. Pillar mining is when they extract materials from a certain spots and leave some areas untouched so it can hold up the walls and roof of the mine.

Pillar Mining

                                                   

In-room mining

Governments involvement

       The government is a huge part of the mining community since they run all the safety rules for the mining industries. But they don't do a lot to buckle down or keep enforcing the rules hard enough. So in my opinion They could regulate the rules in harder ways making sure to do a full inspection more often than normal at random times to make sure that mining companies are keeping up their safety habits. Also they could make a law stating that all companies that do strip surface mining have to replace all dirt or hire someone to replace and replant the area that was mined to keep a cleaner earth.                                

Mining, Minerals, and Metals

         In the book "Mining, Minerals, and Metals" by John Rutter tons of information is used to describe and inform you about what mining is, does, and how it works. it tells you all the common minerals and metals in detail like how rare they may be, their worth, and where they can be found. It gives you tons of facts and figures to although they aren't the most recent they still are pretty amazing. I had no idea the impact our world has had from mining destroyed landscapes and ecosystems to some of the richest people in the world. Some people even thought that it's a get rich quick scheme, but it's really not. Their is a ton of work and money thrown into this business also you have to have a great piece of land or claim as its called in miners tongue. Half the time they don't get half the amount of ore or mineral whatever it is they are looking for. Plus their is a ton of safety laws and concerns that this book talks about that informs you a great deal about the safety concerns of every country. Millions of dollars is being put into finding safer yet more efficient ways of extracting materials from the ground with the least amount of environmental impact. Anyways the books purpose in this case to just inform the readers about mining from the materials extracted, to environment, to costs and safety for the miners. Like I said it's a great informative with many details about this subject and it openly gives you tons of information. It would be beneficial to anyone who read this because it can tell you about anything you want to know about this subject from facts and figures to a detailed explanation about how things get done and studies on how everywhere around the world is trying or making safer ways to extract the materials from the ground whether by strip or underground mining.