Mining Minerals

Use of minerals
• Bauxite (Al(OH)3•nH20)  Beverage cans
• Chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) Electrical Wires
• Gold (Au)  Jewelry; Cell phone
Circuitry
• Graphite (C)  Lead Pencil
• Diamond (C)  Dentist’s drill
• Chromite (FeCr204)  Chrome plating
• Ruby  Lasers
Filipino
 Use of minerals
• Quartz (SiO2)  Glass; Watch component
• Gypsum (CaSO4) Plaster; Taho?
• Sulfur (S) Sulfa drugs, Foot powder
• Galena (PbS) Lead plating (x-rays)
• Calcite (CaCO3) Cement
• Fluorite (CaF2)  Flux in steel making
• Silver (Ag)  Photographic film
 Use of minerals

• Practically every manufactured

product is derived from a mineral!
Despite the small area of the Philippines, it is one of the most
richly endowed nations in the world in terms of mineral
resources (PSA, 2016b).

Estimated production value of metallic minerals by the

Philippines for the year 2014 amounted to PhP142.11B, with
Gold, Copper and Nickel as the top metal ore commodities.
The production value, however, went down by 22.45% to
PhP110.21B in 2015 due to fluctuating market
conditions (DENR, 2016).
Out of the 46 operating metallic mines of the country in 2014,
28 were in the mountain belts of Min- danao with 20 Nickel
Mines, 4 Gold mines, 2 Copper Mines, 1 Chromite Mine and 1
Iron mine (Billedo, 2014).

But even with 60.8% of the oper- ating mines already located in
Mindanao, it is still largely untapped for its mineral wealth,
estimated to host 50% of the Gold and 65% of Nickel reserves of
the country (Billedo, 2014).
 Definition of a mineral
1. Naturally occurring
2. Inorganic
3. Solid
4. Ordered internal structure
5. Definite chemical composition (may vary
only very slightly)
 Naturally occurring
• Should not be
synthesized
– Synthetic diamond
– Ceramics
synthesized by
chemists and
engineers
 Inorganic
• Should not have been
produced by an
organism
– Skeletons of
animals
– Shells of molluscs
– Whewellite (kidney
stones)
 Solid
• Liquids are not
allowed
– Mercury (Hg)
– Ice is a mineral but
liquid water is not
 Ordered internal structure
• Atoms comprising the • Glass does not have
mineral are arranged any ordered structure
in an ordered fashion
Definite chemical composition
• Can vary only slightly
– e.g. Olivine The ions Fe+2 and
Mg+2 can substitute
• Fe2SiO4
each other at specific
• Mg2SiO4 lattice points
Definite chemical composition
Can bring about the
different varieties in
color of a mineral
 Minerals
• In the strict sense should satisfy the 5 parts
of the definition
• If some are not satisfied then they are called
mineraloids
Basic structure of atom
 Types of bonds
Primary bonding forces Secondary bonding
forces
• Ionic
• Covalent • Van der Waals
• Metallic • Hydrogen bonding
 Ionic bond
Electrons are transferred to form a bond
 Covalent bonding
Electrons are shared to form a bond
 Physical properties
each mineral is characterized by
a unique set of physical
properties

1. Crystal form 5. Hardness

2. Luster 6. Cleavage
3. Color 7. Fracture
4. Streak 8. Specific Gravity

Others
 Crystal form
• External expression of
a mineral that reflects
the ordered internal
structure of a mineral
– Cubic
– Octahedron
– Rhombic
– Hexagonal
– Dodecahedron
 Luster
• The appearance or
quality of light
reflected from the
surface of a mineral
– Adamantine
– Glassy
– Pearly
– Greasy
– Metallic
 Color
• A phenomenon of
light by which
otherwise identical
objects may be
differentiated
– Red
– Blue
– Green
– Yellow
 Streak
• The color of a mineral
in powdered form
– Blue
– Green
– Yellow
– Red
 Hardness
1. Talc • A mineral’s resistance
2. Gypsum to scratching and
3. Calcite abrasion
4. Fluorite
5. Apatite
6. Orthoclase
7. Quartz
8. Topaz
9. Corundum (Ruby)
10. Diamond
Cleavage

The tendency of a
mineral to break along
weak planes of
bonding
 Fracture
• Irregular breaking of a
mineral
– Conchoidal fracture
– Splintery fracture
 Specific gravity
• The ratio between the
weight of a mineral
and an equal volume
of water
 Other physical properties
• Magnetism
• Fluorescence
• Double refraction
 Types of Minerals
• 4000 have been named and about 40 to 50
are being named each year
• No more than a
dozen are
common
 Mineral Groups
• Silicates (SiO2, • Carbonates
Mg2SiO4) (CaCO3,)
• Oxides (Fe2O3, • Native elements
Fe3O4, Al2O3) (Au, Ag)
• Sulfides (FeS2, • Halides (NaCl,
ZnS) CaF2)
• Sulfates (CaSO4, • Hydroxides
BaSO4) • Phosphates
 Abundance of elements in the
Earth’s crust
• Oxygen – 46.6 %
• Silicon – 27.7 %
• Aluminum – 8.1 %
• Iron – 5.0 %
• Calcium – 3.6 %
• Sodium – 2.8 %
• Potassium – 2.6 %
• Magnesium – 2.1 %
Total = 98.3
 Silicates
• Most abundant
minerals on earth are
silicates
• Building block is the
silicon tetrahedron
• SiO4-4
 Silicates
• Tetrahedrons can link
• Polymerization – the
linking of silicon
tetrahedrons
Igneous rocks
 Igneous rock
• Definition:
– Rock formed from the crystallization of magma
– Composed of aggregates of interlocking
crystalline minerals
 Composition of magma
• Dominantly ions of Silicon tetrahedra
(SiO4-4) and cations (e.g. Fe+2, Fe+3, Mg+2)
moving about in a hot liquid medium.
 Composition of igneous rock
• Dominantly
silicate
minerals
 Types of Igneous rocks
• Extrusive (volcanic • Intrusive (plutonic
rock) rock)
 Igneous textures
• Texture – a term used to describe the
overall appearance of the rock based on the
size, shape, and appearance of the
interlocking crystals
• Texture is important because it can be used
to distinguish between an intrusive rock and
an extrusive rock
 Igneous textures
1. Phaneritic
2. Aphanitic
3. Glassy
4. Porphyritic
 Phaneritic
• Coarse-grained
texture with crystals
large enough to be
seen by the naked
eye (> 1 mm).
Aphanitic
• Fine-grained texture
with crystals not
large enough to be
seen by the naked
eye (< 1 mm)
 Glassy
• No crystals (minerals)
are formed
• Unordered ions
Porphyritic
• Coarse-grained
crystals inset in a
finer-grained matrix
 Factors affecting size of crystals
• Rate of cooling
– Slow rate of
cooling  large
crystals
– Fast rate of
cooling  small
crystals
– Very fast rate of
cooling  glass
 Porphyritic
Q:Where did this
porphyritic igneous
rock form?

A:First at depths of ~10

km from the surface and
then was extruded along
with the earlier formed
minerals.
 Porphyritic
Q:Where did this
porphyritic igneous
rock form?

A:First at depths of ~10-

20 km from the surface
and was emplaced as an
intrusive a few km
below the surface of the
earth.
 Heat source – why rocks melt
1. Geothermal gradient
2. Decay of radioactive
isotopes
 Where rocks melt
• Below oceanic ridges • At subduction zones
 What are rocks that melt
• Oceanic crust (Basalt) • Continental crust
and parts of the upper (Granite) and parts of
mantle (Peridotite) the upper mantle
(Peridotite)
 Crystallization of melts
• Bowen’s reaction series – The relationship
between magma and the minerals
crystallizing from it during the formation of
igneous rocks
• N.L. Bowen
• Some ions prefer to
crystallize earlier than
others

• There occurs selective

depletion of ions in the
liquid magma

(circles, triangles, and squares

represent ions)
 Bowen’s reaction series
Low-temperature
Quartz Granite
Muscovite Na-rich plagioclase Rhyolite
Biotite Diorite
Amphibole Andesite
Gabbro
Basalt
Pyroxene Ca-rich plagioclase
Peridotite
Olivine
High temperature