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Restoration
Definition – recycling our resources
Examples – aluminum, glass, tin, steel, plastics, etc.
Part of the solution
Problems – recycling a resource often costs
more than using the raw material; we don’t
have the technology to recycle everything
Nonrenewable Resources
Definition – things human use
that have a limited supply; they
cannot be regrown or replenished
by man
Sustainability
Definition – prediction of how long specific
resources will last; ex. we have a 200 year
supply of coal in the U.S.
Knowing this helps people make decisions in
resource use
Problems – these are only predictions; they
may not be accurate
Conservation
Definition – using less of a resource or
reusing a resource
ex. refilling plastic laundry jugs, reusing
plastic bags, etc.
Getting the Goods out of the ground!
Part of the solution
Problems – this requires a change in our
lifestyle and some people will resist.
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ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF
USING MINERAL RESOURCES
The extraction, processing, and use of
mineral resources has a large
environmental impact.
Natural Capital Degradation
Extracting, Processing, and Using Nonrenewable Mineral and Energy Resources
Steps
Environmental effects
Mining
Disturbed land; mining
accidents; health hazards,
mine waste dumping, oil
spills and blowouts; noise;
ugliness; heat
Exploration,
extraction
Processing
Use
Solid wastes; radioactive
material; air, water, and
soil pollution; noise;
safety and health
hazards; ugliness; heat
Transportation or
transmission to
individual user,
eventual use, and
discarding
Noise; ugliness; thermal
water pollution; pollution
of air, water, and soil;
solid and radioactive
wastes; safety and health
hazards; heat
Transportation,
purification,
manufacturing
Benefits
Direct – money received for
resources; provides many jobs
Indirect – land can be reclaimed
(brought back to original condition)
and sold for profit.
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF
USING MINERAL RESOURCES
Minerals are removed through a variety of
methods that vary widely in their costs, safety
factors, and levels of environmental harm.
A variety of methods are used based on mineral
depth.
Surface mining: shallow deposits are removed.
Subsurface mining: deep deposits are removed.
Harvesting Nonrenewable Resources
Costs
Ownership costs – equipment, labor,
safety (insurance), environmental costs
(reclamation, pollution control, air
monitors, water treatment, etc.), taxes
External costs – processing the
resource, transporting the resource
Marginal costs – research: finding new
sources of the resource and new ways
to harvest it
Methods
Surface Mining
Description – if resource is <200 ft. from the surface,
the topsoil is removed (and saved), explosives are
used to break up the rocks and to remove the
resource, reclamation follows
Benefits – cheap, easy, efficient
Costs – tears up the land (temporarily), byproducts
produce an acid that can accumulate in rivers and
lakes
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Methods (Continued)
Open-pit Mining
Machines dig
holes and
remove ores,
sand, gravel,
and stone.
Toxic
groundwater
can accumulate
at the bottom.
Underground Mining
Description – digging a shaft down to the
resource, using machinery (and people) to tear off
and remove the resource
Benefits – can get to resources far underground
Costs – more expensive, more time-consuming,
more dangerous
Figure 15-11
Methods (Continued)
Reclamation
Description – returning the rock layer
(overburden) and the topsoil to a
surface mine, fertilizing and planting it
Benefits – restores land to good
condition
Costs – expensive, time-consuming
Area Strip Mining
Earth movers
strips away
overburden, and
giant shovels
removes mineral
deposit.
Often leaves highly
erodible hills of
rubble called spoil
banks.
Figure 15-12
Specific Resources & Their Uses
Coal – formed from ancient peat bogs (swamps)
that were under pressure as they were covered.
Used for electricity, heat, steel, exports, and
industry, may contribute to the “Greenhouse
Effect”
Four types of coal exist: lignite (soft, used for
electricity), bituminous and subbituminous (harder,
also used for electricity) and anthracite (hardest,
used for heating)
50% of all the coal is in the United States, the
former Soviet Union and China
Contour Strip Mining
Used on hilly or
mountainous
terrain.
Unless the land is
restored, a wall of
dirt is left in front
of a highly
erodible bank
called a
highwall.
Figure 15-13
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Mountaintop Removal
Specific Resources & Their Uses
Machinery
removes the tops
of mountains to
expose coal.
The resulting
waste rock and
dirt are dumped
into the streams
and valleys below.
Limestone – abundant locally, formed from layers
of seashells and organisms under pressure as
they were covered; used in sidewalks, fertilizers,
plastics, carpets, and more
Lead – used in batteries and cars
Clay – used to make books, magazines, bricks,
and linoleum
Gold – besides being used as money and for
jewelry, gold is used in medicine (lasers,
cauterizing agents) and in electronics (circuits in
computers, etc.)
Figure 15-14
Texas
Central – limestone, tin, clay, lead, garnets,
freshwater pearls, amethysts, calcium
carbonate
West – talc, mercury, silver, petroleum, sulfur
East – lignite coal, petroleum
South – lignite coal, petroleum, uranium,
limestone
North – helium, uranium, petroleum, bituminous
coal
Solutions
Sustainable Use of Nonrenewable Minerals
United States
• Do not waste mineral resources.
• Recycle and reuse 60–80% of mineral resources.
• Include the harmful environmental costs of
mining and processing minerals in the prices
of items (full-cost pricing).
Central – diamonds (Arkansas), bituminous
coal
West – bituminous and subbituminous coal,
gold, silver, copper
East – anthracite coal, bituminous coal
South – some gold (SC), bituminous coal
North – bituminous coal, some gold (SD, WI)
• Reduce subsidies for mining mineral resources.
• Increase subsidies for recycling, reuse, and
finding less environmentally harmful substitutes.
• Redesign manufacturing processes to use less
mineral resources and to produce less pollution
and waste.
• Have the mineral-based wastes of one
manufacturing process become the raw
materials for other processes.
• Sell services instead of things.
• Slow population growth.
Fig. 15-18, p. 351
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