Mining Geology
Mining geology is an applied science which combines the principles of economic geology and mining engineering to the development of a defined mineral resource. Mining geologists and engineers work to develop an identified ore deposit to economically extract the ore. The essence of mining in extracting mineral wealth from the earth is to drive an excavation or excavations from the surface to the mineral deposit. when the economic profitability of a mineral deposit has been established with some confidence, ore or ore deposit is preferred as the descriptive term for the mineral occurrence. According to mining market survey, It has been estimated that only a fraction of 1% of the earth’s surface is underlain with mineral deposits of commercial value. From this resource, the United States extracted nearly 60 billion in mineral values in 1997: worth of industrial minerals,$20 billion worth of coal, and $12 billion worth of metals.
- Minerals excavation, erosion and sedimentation
- Mineral exploration
- Economics mineral deposits in industries
- Geology in coal mining
- Mineral processing and marketing
- Mining environmental engineering
- Mining and metallurgical engineering