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9.7 Mining and the Australian Environment: 3. Mining becomes viable under a range of conditions
Extract from Earth and Environmental Science Stage 6
Syllabus (Amended October 2002). © Board of
Studies, NSW.
[Edit :7 Aug 08]
process information from secondary sources to classify renewable and non-renewable resources commonly in use
- In this syllabus point, collect a list of resources and
use the definitions in the next syllabus point below to
classify them as renewable and non-renewable. The
following sites provide information to enable you discuss
and classify renewable and non-renewable resources.
Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources
Eco-Pros
Environmental Education on the Web, Sunset.Net, 2006, Rocklin, California, USA
Paper or Plastic? Exploring renewable resources Produced by Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom, a program of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, the Oklahoma Department
of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2008. - Process your gathered list into two lists or a two column table to classify the resources as renewable or non-renewable.
Some more information on non-renewable resources in relation to mining. POLICY: NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES EXTRACTION and PROCESSING (MINING) NSW Nature Conservation Council, policy adopted at the 2000 Annual Conference.
identify renewable and non-renewable resources commonly used in society in terms of the processes and time required to generate them
- A renewable resource is one that is replaced, or can be
replaced, at a rate greater than or equal to the rate at
which it is comsumed.
-
Some common renewable resources are -
- water - it is recycled by nature.
- wood - produced through photosynthesis in a relatively “short” time.
- wind power - can sometimes be harnessed depending on local conditions
- solar energy - available in most locations during daytime hours.
- A non renewable resource is a resource that is used by
humans at a rate faster than its rate of formation.
-
Some common non renewable resources are:
- coal, oil and natural gas - developed by geological processes over millions of years
- most minerals - developed by geological processes over thousands and millions of years.
perform a first-hand investigation to distinguish between waste rock and ore, and ore minerals and gangue minerals
- This investigation could be carried out using specimens
from a mine site or as a simulation.
- If examining specimens, you need to gather samples of
ore and some of the waste rock surrounding it. Observe the
samples and distinguish between the waste rock and the ore
as well as between the ore minerals and the gangue
minerals.
- For a interesting simulation, refer to the activity
Minerals, Ores and Gangue , a lesson in the Cadia
Hill virtual tour An excellent site developed by the
NSW Minerals Council that describes the operations of the
Newcrest Mining Limited's Cadia Hill Gold Mine, a world
class gold/copper mine located 25km from the New South
Wales central west city of Orange.
define ore as bodies of rock containing ore minerals which can be mined and treated at a profit
- Ore is a body of rock containing ore minerals, which can be mined and treated at a profit. Ore is usually treated to extract one or more metals.
distinguish between waste rock and ores in rock
- Waste rock is rock that needs to be tunnelled through or removed to get to the ore rock.
distinguish between ore minerals and gangue minerals in rock
- Ore minerals are the minerals containing the metal
being sought
-
The gangue minerals are the minerals associated with the
ore minerals and which are not required from the
processing.
Atlas of common ore minerals
A good web site, hosted
by Oxford Brookes University, UK, that has definitions
and photographs of minerals.
describe gangue minerals as those that must be removed to enrich the concentration and value of an ore deposit
- Gangue minerals are those that must be removed to enrich the concentration and value of an ore deposit.
process and analyse information from secondary sources on the interrelationships between:
- financial cost involved in exploration, mining, refining and rehabilitation
- market price
- tonnage, grade and depth of mineral deposits
- available technology in determining the economic viability of a named ore
- To conduct this activity, search the Internet to locate
information on the mining of an ore deposit. The Cadia
Mine in central NSW or the mining and oil section of
the Australian Stock exchange would be good sources.
-
Collect information on the economic situation of the
mine. Using the Internet, you could search for a mine
prospectus.This is a financial statement of projections
for the sale of shares in the mining company.A prospectus
document provides enough information to estimate the
exploration, extraction and refining costs, and enables
you to match this up against the market price and grade
of the ore.
-
Process and analyse the
information to make up a financial model for the mine to
show when economic conditions or the value of the ore
deposit makes the mine a financial success. Begin by
identifying which factors relate to "costs" and
which relate to "profit".
| Costs | Profit |
|---|---|
| Exploration: Which methods? What available technology? | - |
| Mining: How deep is ore? What extraction technology? | - |
| Refining: What grade is ore? How will it be processed? | What tonnage of metals can be extracted? What is the present and predicted future market price per tonne? |
| Rehabilition: How much top soil and waste rock to be moved and replaced? What plantings are needed? How long is the site to be monitored? | - |
| Viability = profit - costs | |
Further information Lecture 9: Mineral Commodities USA
Australia's Uranium Mines
explain how grade and tonnage, and the relationship between the market price and the cost of exploration, mining and processing determine the economic value of a deposit
- Grade is a measure of how much valuable ore is present
in a sample. The units used to measure the grade depend on
the mineral and how it is used in the mining industry. Some
like gold and silver are measured in grams per tonne of
ore. Others, like copper, zinc and lead, use percentages of
metal, while some like uranium, use percentages of oxide.
- Tonnage is a measure of the total value of the deposit
in the ground.
- The value in the ground is a multiplication of the
tonnes of deposit x value of recoverable
mineral in each tonne.
- A mine can only operate if it is profitable and its profitability depends on the market price of the metal at any particular time and the cost of exploration, mining and processing. When the price of the metal is high, such as gold is in the second half of 2008 at about US$700/ounce, a mine that may have been only marginally profitable with high mining and processing costs, could then be very profitable. Mining costs could increase as the mine goes deeper into the ground. In recent years open cut or surface mining has generally become cheaper than underground mining.
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