

Mineral wealth is the natural occurrence of minerals, rock, or  chemical compounds that might be economically exploited. It includes  oil, natural gas, coal, salt, and ores.
People's need of large  amounts of coal, gas, and oil is continually increasing, so that the  growing population may maintain its high living standards. The question  is, how long the required supply will last? What will happen, when the  resources are exhausted? Where are these fuels located and what kind of  burden on the environment do they represent? Our reserves at this time  are deposits (exploitable accumulations of naturally occurring raw  materials), which have been discovered and may be exploited.
The  total occurrence of raw materials is called resources. Resources include  known deposits, which are being exploited, then deposits, which may be  exploited but need large investment of capital or new technology to do  so, and deposits that have not been yet discovered, but according to  estimates probably exist.
A great part of our resources is  non-renewable, because these resources need many millions of years to  form, but they may be exhausted within a few centuries. They are, in  particular, solid fuel, such as coal and gas. For people, salt deposits,  ores, and natural rock are also very important raw materials.
Since  the beginning of the20th century, people have been trying to find  alternate sources of these resources. Some of the examples is providing  energy utilising the sunlight, or developing industrial manufacture of  minerals.
Ore Deposits
Places containing a sufficient  amount of minerals, which may be used to obtain metals, are called ore  deposits, and minerals containing metals are called ore minerals. They  are chemical compounds of metal elements combined with sulphur or  oxygen. Ore in pure form is found very seldom, especially in larger  pieces, they are combined generally with rock minerals, which are also  important for us. Some precious or heavy metals, for example gold, occur  naturally in the form of elements.
A valuable raw material is  obtained by separating the ore from the host rock. A deposit is  economically viable only if a certain element occurs in a substantially  higher concentration than in the average rock of the earth's crust.
Deposits are formed by various geological processes. There are sedimentary, igneous, and hydrothermal deposits.
Sedimentary deposits  are among the most important raw material resources on earth. Through  chemical and physical action during the sedimentation process, many  economically important minerals were separated. The most important  factor in this case is the dissolving property of water. An example of  this process are the silica sands. The water currents and waves change  sands to such a degree, that only pure quartz is left behind. Quartz is  an important raw material in the glass industry and for the  telecommunications technology (fibre optics).
Copper, iron, and  other metals are also important sedimentary ore deposits. The most  important ores are found in the Precambrian sedimentary rock. There are  large deposits of this type in Brazil, India, Australia, and North  America.
Ore deposits with a high content of gold or other heavy metals, for example titanium minerals, are called placer deposits.
A  well-known method of obtaining gold is the panning. By swirling a pan  filled with fluvial deposits, one first separates the lighter minerals,  because the heavy gold settles on the bottom of the pan.
Diamond,  one of the most valuable minerals, comes to the earth's surface through  thin, long tubes. Diamonds form in the depth of the upper earth's  mantle, because only there the pressures are such as to allow the  formation of this mineral.
Igneous deposits often occur in  layers. They form, when minerals crystallise from the molten magma,  sink, and are enriched on the bottom of the igneous chamber. In southern  Africa, important deposits of platinum and chromium were find in this  type of deposits.
Hydrothermal deposits form thanks to the action of hot solutions during magma melting processes, or in the hot underground water.
Minerals  are separated by the hot liquids from the rock and when they are  transported to cooler rocks, they settle in the cracks and cavities.  This is how iron sulphides, zinc, and copper form.
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