Mined mineral resources play an important part in our lives, each and every day. We don’t take the time to think about the many different uses we have for mined minerals. Let’s walk through a simple day together and consider how our days would be different without mined minerals:
- Rise & Shine! – oops! No toothpaste for brushing those pearly whites! After all, that requires fluorite, which is a mined mineral!
- Forget drying your hair with a hair dryer or using the curling iron! They are both made up of many mined minerals!
- No bus or car ride to school, since there are literally loads of barrels of oil and tons of mined minerals in a car and bus! Those feet are made for walking! Bicycles as well use tons of mined minerals!
- Sorry, no blackboard in school! That would require slate, which is a mined mineral! No computers or interactive whiteboards either!
- Oops – Supper may be a little late tonight! We have to get some wood and cook dinner over an open fire! After all, there are many mined minerals in a stove or microwave ovens!
- Too bad you weren’t paying attention in school today, since you have no phone to call and ask a friend! After all, phones are made from mined minerals!
- Early to bed (you might as well!) – since there is no tv to watch, no cd’s to listen to, no video games to play! Do you know that there are 33 minerals in a tv set alone?
So how do we get all these minerals? They come from the earth and need to be mined and processed so we can enjoy the products we use every single day!
