Mines and Minerals
A mineral is a natural substance of inorganic origin with definite chemical and physical properties. Since the beginning of Copper Age mining has become a very important economic activity of mankind. This form of economic activity still contributes a sizable amount to the economic development of countries.
Minerals sometimes occur on the earth’s crust but most of the time are buried below the surface.
Large scale mining is dependent on several factors: Size of the deposit, depth, amount and location.
Minerals vary a great deal in their structure, composition, use etc.
The solid crust of the earth is made up of rocks. The rocks, in their turn, can be defined as the aggregates of minerals. The minerals, therefore, are the smallest geological units forming the crust and are themselves substances of inorganic nature. Minerals are, moreover, characterized more or less by their fixed chemical composition and exhibit perfect geometric shape and have an internal atomic structure.
To be designated as a mineral species, a substance must have the following three characteristic features:
(i) A mineral must be found in nature,
(ii) A mineral must be of inorganic origin, and
(iii) A mineral must possess a definite chemical characteristic and a distinctive atomic formation.
Most minerals have a crystalline structure. Substances like coal, petroleum and natural gas etc., though gifts of nature, are not minerals, because these are derived from organic substances.
Minerals have long been considered as the basis for the development of human civilization through times. The Stone Age had been distinguished as the time when stones formed and fashioned the life and activities of the ancient men. At this period, the weapons and the essential crude implements of the man were made of stone.
Copper Age began as man discovered copper from the mines and learnt its utility. Then came the Bronze Age, when people developed a stronger and more durable metal by mixing copper and tin in suitable proportion. Historians are of opinion that about thousand years before Christian Era the Bronze Age was replaced by Iron Age. More recently, the Iron Age has given way to Steel Age of our modern times.
The real and massive exploration of the earth’s hidden treasure or minerals started with the advent of Industrial Revolution in England, more than a century ago. Within this relatively short span of time minerals have become, at an ever-accelerating rate, the essential basis of industrialization.
A dramatic change of the economic scenario of any region or country may take place following the exploration of minerals. Saudi Arabia is, perhaps, the best example. The country was simply a barren waste of desert even before World War II. But, following the emigration of the people from the West, oil exploration started leading to overall economic upliftment of the country. Thus, within a period of about four decades, the country emerged as a developing nation.
Some minerals can be obtained easily and cheaply than others because they lie at the surface of the earth. Others lie buried at depths of thousand meters beneath the earth’s surface. They can be explored by digging deep underground.
In the present time, mining is the basic factor for industrial development, because it alone provides means for advanced industrial operations. Minerals enable man to increase his productivity. Man utilizes various minerals to minimize his labour. In effect, minerals enlarge the versatility of a man’s hand and multiply the power of his muscles.
In contrast to agriculture or forestry, mining is a kind of robbery or plundering economy because a mineral once mined is lost forever as a natural resource. The natural replacement of minerals depends entirely on geological events. It is, therefore, the prime objective of different nations to utilize the mineral resources in the best possible way.
Mining and the processing of minerals exert tremendous impact on the economic well- being of a country in a number of ways which can be summarized as follows:
(a) They provide employment opportunities.
(b) They attract population to be settled around the mining sites.
(c) They stimulate the development of transportation.
d) They open new scope for export earnings.
(e) Minerals extend the scope for the development of domestic industries.
Minerals are very unevenly distributed in different parts of the world. The countries having suitable geological formations are vastly endowed with different grades of minerals. No country in the world, whatever be its size and location, is completely self-sufficient in every mineral resource. The countries like the China or the United States of America have become industrially developed because of the presence of abundant mineral resources within their own territory.
The ever-increasing demand of minerals, to sustain the present form of industrial civilization, has caused the world to explore and consume more minerals within the period embracing the two World Wars than in all previous history of mankind. History reveals that the countries like Germany, Japan and Italy became aggressor nations because they were notably lacking in most critically important mineral resources.
Minerals are non-renewable resources, and, thus, more a country becomes industrially advanced the more rapidly it exhausts its own mineral deposits and is bound to import from other countries. Japan lacks in most of the mineral resources, so she imports minerals from different corners of the world.
