using mineral resources (pages 80–85)

Using Mineral Resources(pages 80–85)

Key Concept:

Minerals are the source of gemstones, metals, and a

variety of materials used to make many products.

A gemstone is a hard, colorful mineral that is

shiny.

Gemstones are used mainly for jewelry.

Examples are rubies, sapphires, and diamonds.

Minerals such as copper, gold, and silver are called metals.

Metals are usually softer than gemstones.

Metals are used for wires, jewelry, tools, and buildings.

Other useful minerals include quartz and gypsum.

Quartz is used to make glass.

Gypsum is used to make cement.

A hard, colorful mineral that is shiny is a(an)

gemstone

Circle the letter of a mineral that is might be used to

make wire.

gypsumrubycopper

Circle the letter of a mineral that is used to make glass.

quartzsapphiresilver

Key Concept: To produce metal from a mineral, a

rock containing the mineral must be located through

prospecting and mined, or removed from the ground.

Then the rock must be processed to extract the

metal.

Most metals are found in rocks that also contain other substances.

An ore is a rock that contains a metal or other useful mineral.

A prospector is someone who looks for ore. To find ore, a prospector might look at rocks on the surface and study maps of underground rocks.

Mining is removing ore from the ground.

There are different kinds of mines.

For example, in a shaft mine, miners dig tunnels to follow

veins of ore.

Smelting is removing metal from ore.

For example, the ore hematite is smelted to

remove iron. In smelting, hematite is crushed, mixed with other materials, and heated.

After smelting, a metal may be mixed with other substances

to make an alloy.

An alloy is a solid mixture containing at least one metal.

For example, iron is mixed with carbon to form the alloy steel.

Steel is harder and stronger than pure iron.

Is the following sentence true or false?

Most metals are found in the ground in pure form.

FALSE

A solid mixture containing at least one metal is an

alloy

A rock containing a metal or other useful mineral is

an….

ore

The process of removing metal from ore is called

smelting

Someone who looks for ore is a

prospector

Iron occurs in an ore called

hematite

Steps in Producing Metals

Prospecting

Smelting

Mining