Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Gulliver, and I'm really pleased that you're here to join me for this geography lesson today.

Today, our lesson is all about economic minerals and their uses.

By the end of the lesson, you'll be able to describe what economic minerals are and explain where they can be found and how we use them.

Some of this learning might be new to you, but that's okay 'cause I'm going to be here to help throughout the whole lesson.

This lesson is going to build on some of our prior learning about other natural resources and their uses.

For our lesson today, we've got three key words.

I will say them first and I will give you a chance to say them afterwards.

So our first word is extraction.

Great.

Mining.

Well done.

And finally, quarrying.

Great job.

Extraction is the process of removing something, like minerals, especially by force.

Mining is the process of digging under the ground to remove natural resources.

Quarrying is digging into the surface of the ground to remove things like rock or sand for use.

Our lesson today is going to be split into two parts, and the first part of our lesson is going to be all about economic minerals and their uses.

So economic minerals are useful or valuable solid substances that are found naturally in the Earth's crust.

They are another natural resource.

There are thousands of different types of economic minerals in the world, and we are going to be finding out about some of them today.

Can you think of any economic minerals? We can split our economic minerals into metallic and non-metallic minerals.

Some of the metallic minerals that you may have thought of include gold, copper, iron.

You may have also thought of aluminium, which is the most common metal mineral found in the world.

Some of our non-metallic minerals include quartz, sand, and clay.

We're going to be finding out about the use of those as well later today.

For the first check, I would like you to identify which of these six are examples of minerals.

Well done.

Gold, quartz, and clay are all examples of minerals.

We're going to think about our metallic minerals, and they have a range of uses.

They can be used for jewellery.

I'm sure you've seen people wearing gold or silver jewellery.

They can also be used in the construction industry.

Steel frames are used to build houses and buildings, and copper can be used to make pipes.

Metals also used to make transport.

Lots of vehicles, such as boats, planes, and cars.

It can be used to make cutlery, tools, such as nails and hammers, and also metallic minerals are used to make coins so that we can buy things.

Our non-metallic minerals have a range of uses too and they may not be as obvious to us.

Quartz, one of our non-metallic minerals, is often used in computer chips for electronics.

Sand, which is also known as silica, is used with other substances to create windows.

Fluoride is used in our toothpaste to keep our teeth healthy.

Clay is used to create bricks and ceramics, pottery.

And like we said, quartz is used in a lot electronics, as is another mineral called feldspar.

So although we don't always obviously see these use of minerals, we really do use them in objects every day.

I'd like you to have a look around your classroom.

Can you see anything that is made from minerals? Turn to the person next to you and have a look.

You might have seen a lamp.

Can you think of any mineral uses in a lamp? Great job.

Copper is often used in a lamp for the wiring for electricity to pass through to power it.

Sand, silica, is likely to be used in the glass bulb for the light to come out of.

Metal or clay may be used in the base of the lamp to hold it up.

It might be a ceramic pottery lamp that may have a metal base.

And finally, quartz may be used in the electronics in the bulb as well.

So there might be lots of different used in one item.

I'd like you to have a go at matching these different items with the minerals.

So I've got some bricks, a computer chip, some pottery, windows, a boat, a pipe, and a bulb, and I'd like you to match which of the minerals are used in those items. Did you manage to sort them? Great job.

I'm sure yours looked like this too that the pipe is made from copper, the mineral clay is used to make bricks and pottery, quartz is used in computer chips and electronics and light bulbs, iron is used to make boats, and sand is used in making windows and bricks.

We're gonna think about iron for a moment because it's the second most common metal found in the Earth's crust.

Can you remember what the most common metal was? Great job.

It's aluminium.

Iron is the second most common metal found in the Earth's crust and it has been an important metal since ancient times.

Actually, it's such an important metal that there's a whole period of history named after it, the Iron Age, and this was the period in history when people first began to make tools and weapons out of iron and steel.

Steel is a mixture of iron and carbon and it's stronger than iron on its own.

Iron and steel have many, many different uses.

How many can you think of? Andeep says that apart from tools and weapons, iron and steel can also be used for building roads, railways, and bridges.

So lots of construction.

It's got other uses too.

You may have thought of some of these ideas.

They can be used to make water pipes to transport water from one place to the other.

Iron and steel are often used to build huge sporting stadiums and skyscrapers.

And stainless steel, which is a type of steel, is used for our cutlery so that we can eat, and also it's used for hospital equipment, when people are operating.

I've got a true and false check for you.

True or false, iron and steel can only be used for building railway tracks.

True or false? And once you've decided, can you justify your answer using, A, iron and still have multiple uses, including making tools, building stadiums and bridges, and for hospital equipment, or B, iron and still are not used for building railway tracks.

Great job.

That was false.

And it's false because iron and steel have multiple uses, including making tools, building stadiums and bridges, and for hospital equipment.

For your first task today, I would like you to fill in the blanks.

Minerals are useful or solid substances found in Earth's.

Minerals can be split into two categories, minerals and minerals.

For the second part of the task, I'd like you to list the names of two metallic and two non-metallic minerals.

I'd then like you to choose one of your metallic minerals and one of your non-metallic minerals and state how they are used in everyday objects.

And finally, I'd like you to write a sentence or two about why iron has been an important metal since ancient times.

I know you're going to use your geography brains to do some great work here.

Well done.

I know you tried really hard with those tasks.

So for question one, we had to fill in the blanks.

Minerals are useful or valuable solid substances found naturally in Earth's crust.

Minerals can be split into two categories, metallic minerals and non-metallic minerals.

List the names of two metallic and two non-metallic mineral.

You might have chosen some of the minerals below or you might have come up with your other ideas.

So for metallic minerals, I listed iron, copper, and gold.

And for non-metallic, I listed quartz, sand, and clay.

I chose to talk about copper and how that's used in every objects.

I said it's used in wiring and piping, and I also chose clay and said that that can be used to make tiles and ceramics, such as pots and vases.

For question four I said iron was important originally as it was used to make weapons and tools, such as hammers and scythes.

Nowadays, it's very important when it is made into steel and used to build railways, stadiums, pipes, and for medical equipment.

Lots of different uses.

Well done, everybody.

The second part of our lesson is about the extraction of economic minerals, how they are removed from the Earth.

Economic minerals are extracted from Earth all around the world.

Typically, minerals are removed from under the ground using force such as explosions, digging, and hammering.

There are too many ways of extracting minerals from the Earth's surface.

Do you know what they are? Well done.

You can take minerals out of the Earth, extract them by mining or by quarrying.

And we're going to have a look a bit more about each of these now.

So we are going to start with mining, which is the process of digging deep under the ground to remove natural resources.

It may be on the land or in oceans and lakes.

You can see all of these minerals around the world, and mines are used to dig underneath the ground to remove lots of these minerals.

You can see that gold is mined on every single continent, apart from Antarctica.

So there will be mines in all of those places, which have been dug deep under the ground to remove the gold.

During underground mining, tunnels are blasted deep into the earth and rock to reach the minerals.

The minerals are mixed with other unwanted rocks and minerals.

And the mix of rock and minerals is taken away from the mine and it has to be cleaned and processed.

It would be very dark down in those mines, wouldn't it? Quarrying is different.

And you see how you think quarrying might be different from mining? Yes, well done.

Quarrying is done on top of the Earth's surface.

It's when a hole or pit in the surface of the ground is made to remove resources, such as minerals.

So it's not when tunnels are dug underground.

Quarrying is typically used to remove non-metallic rock and minerals, like sand and clay, from shallow open pits and holes.

There's a picture of a quarry there.

A main difference between a quarry and a mine is that a mine is usually underground, whereas a quarry does not have a roof.

They're out in the open.

In the U.

K.

, there are over 2000 active working mines and quarry sites to remove things like economic minerals from the surface of the Earth.

I'd like you to have a look at these pictures and identify which of the pictures are quarries and which are mines.

I'll give you a moment to have a talk to the person next to you and sort these out.

Great job.

There they are sorted into the mines and the quarries, and we can remember that mines are normally tunnels underground, whereas quarries do not have a roof and are out in the open.

The extraction, the removal of economic minerals from the Earth's surface can unfortunately leave large environmental impacts on local landscapes.

It can cause problems. One of the problems that it cause is that it can cause mine dumps.

And this is where waste is left behind after the valuable minerals have been extracted.

And this waste can often be radioactive, toxic, or acidic, and it may contain dust particles that can affect the local or air quality for people living nearby.

The extraction of economic materials can also lead to deforestation.

To create mines, there is lots of land needed.

There's often natural habitats, such as forests, on the land before a mine is created.

When these forests are cleared for the mine, the landscape can be damaged or removed completely and habitats are lost for animals and other living things.

The extraction of economic minerals can also lead to water pollution.

Some mines release mining waste into nearby river systems. Dangerous chemicals can end up in a range of ecosystems and harm fish.

Humans may drink this polluted and contaminated water, or they may eat fish which are also contaminated, and this can cause people to get E.

coli.

Time for another check.

Mines and quarries can bring a range of problems to a local area, such as, A, extracting valuable minerals from the Earth's surface, B, less jobs for locals, or C, mine dumps, deforestation, and water pollution.

Turn to the person next to you and have a think.

Great job.

It's C.

Mining and quarrying can also bring positive impacts to a local area.

One of the positive impacts is that it can create jobs.

They can create jobs for people living nearby in the local community.

There may also be additional jobs in the construction, for example, if they need to build roads to get to the mine or quarry.

Creating mines and quarries can also improve the infrastructure of a local area.

It can improve the facilities that are in a local area that help people go about their daily lives, such as the water and electricity supply, the roads, or the schools and hospitals.

So mining companies may spend money on improving local infrastructure, such as the road networks or phone networks, and they may also spend money on building schools and hospitals nearby.

We've got another true or false for you.

Quarries and mines only bring negative impacts to the local community.

And then I'd like you to justify your answer using either, A, quarries and mines can bring more jobs and improved infrastructure to a local community, or B, quarries and mines don't bring any negative impact to the local community.

Great job.

It's false.

Quarries and mines don't only bring negative impacts to the local community, they can also bring jobs and improve infrastructure.

Here's your final task for the day.

I'd like you to imagine a company has found some valuable economic minerals near your school and wants to set up a new quarry or mine to extract them.

It's gonna be your job to create a poster to inform local residents of the possible positive and negative impacts for the local community.

You might want to think about all of the ideas that we have been through today, and you can create your poster in any way that you want.

Here was some of the positive and negative impacts that I thought to include in my poster.

So for the positives, I said that a local quarry or mine that is extracting economic minerals may bring more jobs to a local area.

and this will mean some families in the local community will have more money.

The local infrastructure will also get improved, and roads and local power supplies as well as water supplies may improve.

And the mining company might also invest money in building new or better schools and hospitals.

Some of the negatives I talked about were deforestation because it's likely that some of the local habitats and ecosystems will suffer as trees may get cut down to make space for the mine or quarry.

We also talked about mine dumps, when there may be some toxic and harmful waste, which can affect the local air quality.

I'm sure you had great ideas in your poster as well.

So today in our lesson on economic minerals and their uses, we have found that economic minerals are useful or valuable solid substances which are found in the Earth's crust.

Economic minerals have a range of uses around the world, and its iron has been a very important metal since ancient times.

Economic minerals are extracted from the Earth through quarrying, which, remember, doesn't have a roof, and mining, those tunnels deep into the Earth.

The extraction, removal of economic minerals can bring a range of impacts to a local community and area, and some of these may be positive and some may be negative.

Thank you so much for joining me today to learn about economic minerals and their uses in our geography lesson.

I hope to see you soon.