Mining

Mining - An Introduction to the World Underneath Us

Unless you are outdoors at this very moment, you will most likely see familiar objects, such as a table, a lamp, pictures or paintings, and other people wearing comfortable clothes. If you are outdoors, you might see a traffic sign, a fence, a paved road, or an automobile of some sort.

All of these things use some material that was, at one point, excavated from the earth. Whether it was the gold for that necklace you wear, aluminum for that soft drink can, or salt used in the dyes that color your clothes, most products we use depend on mining.

Throughout your life time, you will use large quantities of mined materials to accomplish various tasks. Many of them will be used for your body’s needs, such as iron, salt, iodine, potassium and magnesium. Others you will use for school, like the lead in a pencil or the metal lockers you hang your coat in. Still others, like steel and copper, will be used to make cars or to conduct electricity. It is amazing how many things mining provides for our lives.

Of course, mining is only half the equation.

Other items, such as wood, bamboo, straw, hemp and cotton are materials that come from plants on the earth’s surface. These materials help us to build shelter and construct items that make our life easier and more productive.

In combination with mined materials, other materials from the earth’s surface help to provide food, clothing, and shelter for the earth’s population.

This combination of mined materials and grown materials can be stated in a more concise way:

If you can't grow it, you MUST mine it!

We invite you to the world of mining.