Human Uses of Rocks and Minerals

• Rocks and minerals have been used by humans for thousands of years.

• Rocks are used for their physical properties or they are processed to extract minerals that they contain.

• Minerals are used in a wide range of applications including construction, agriculture and the manufacture of consumer products.

• The earliest uses of rocks include:

• Stone tools, such as grinding stones and axes.

• Weapons, such as arrow and spear points.

• Flint stones for starting fires.

• Current uses of rocks include:

• Building stones.

• Aggregates, such as crushed rock, gravel and sand.

• Extraction of metals and other minerals.

• Energy (fossil fuels).

• Gemstones.

Mineral Ores and Mining

• An ore is a rock or sediment deposit that contains one or more valuable minerals.

• The minerals in ores are usually metals, such as gold, or metal compounds, such as gibbsite (aluminium hydroxide).

• Ores can be extracted (mined) and the minerals refined (purified) through a variety of physical and chemical processes.

• In most cases, ores are extracted and refined to produce pure metals or metal alloys, such as gold, aluminium and steel, but they may also be extracted for the production of refined metal compounds, such as aluminium oxide and sodium carbonate.

Rocks and minerals have been used by humans for thousands of years.

(Images: Gary Todd, Wikimedia Commons; Vyacheslav Argenberg, Wikimedia Commons; Parilov, Adobe Stock)