Excavation and Mining
Extraction of Resources slides
•Beneath the soil is one of Canada’s most valuable resources: minerals (gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, iron ore, uranium, & nickel).
•Mineral deposits are very important to Canada’s economy because they provide jobs.
•1.5 million people make their living in the mining industry in this area.
•Blasting & digging with heavy machinery causes the land around mines to be damaged and the environment is often ruined.
•Slag, or leftover rock from the smelting process, is often dumped in any convenient place.
•Mining processes release harmful chemicals into the air, which causes acid rain.
Things you need included in your mine:
- While the northern areas of the Canadian shield aren’t very heavily populated compared to Southern Canada, there still are towns and cities up there, as well as villages where workers who extract the minerals live
- 3 different ways to extract minerals from the ground (draw examples of each on the board):
- Strip mining: method of mining used to recover minerals that are located near the surface (coal and oil sands)
- Open Pit Mining: method of mining using a large hole that is dug for the purpose of extracting ore found near the earth’s surface, but that continues deep into the ground (often use dynamite or explosives to help dig into the bedrock)
- Underground Mining: method of mining used to recover minerals deep under the ground
•Beneath the soil is one of Canada’s most valuable resources: minerals (gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, iron ore, uranium, & nickel).
•Mineral deposits are very important to Canada’s economy because they provide jobs.
•1.5 million people make their living in the mining industry in this area.
•Blasting & digging with heavy machinery causes the land around mines to be damaged and the environment is often ruined.
•Slag, or leftover rock from the smelting process, is often dumped in any convenient place.
•Mining processes release harmful chemicals into the air, which causes acid rain.
- Once the minerals have been harvested from the ground, they must be processed first before they are useful, which has 2 distinct steps
- Milling: the process of purifying the mineral by separating it from the waste rock
- The metal at this stage is not yet pure, but is now in a concentrated form
- Smelting: the new concentrated minerals and a substance called flux are melted together, with the flux joining to the waste rock and creating a material called slag
- Slag is lighter than liquid metal, and rises to the surface, with the now almost pure metal being poured into moulds
- Tailings are waste materials that are produced during the processing of metal ores, and are a mixture of water, the chemicals used in the process, and rock particles (poisonous)
- These tailings are gotten rid of by keeping safely away from lakes and rivers, until they evaporate and leave behind solid waste that is treated with fertilizers and other chemicals to allow trees and grasses to grow
- Milling: the process of purifying the mineral by separating it from the waste rock
- Besides tailings, what other hazards does the mining industry provide for Canada?
- Pollution and exhaust can cause acid rain
- Unsightly damage to the ground / trees / environment
- As mines are used up, they are abandoned and can pose a safety risk to people / animals living around the area
- Non-renewable
- Pockets of Natural Gas
- Destruction of habitat
- One of the things extracted from the ground is fossil fuels, which directly impact the environment when burned / used
- Tailings
Things you need included in your mine:
- Where in Canada
- Strip, Open Pit, or Underground Mine
- What you’re mining
- Where workers will live
- Where machines are kept
- What happens to waste materials
- What happens to your mine once it is empty
- Roads and transportation routes