EARTH’S RESOURCES

Prepared by: Engr. Ray A. Bunquin

TYPES OF RESOURCES

 Four (4) types of resources:

 Mineral
 Energy
 Water
 Soil
RESOURCE VS RESERVE

 Resource
 naturally occurring solids, liquids or gases known or
thought to exist in or on the Earth’s crust in
concentrations which make extraction economically
feasible either at present or sometime in the future.
 Reserve
a subset of a geologic resource; that portion of an
identified resource which can be extracted
economically using current technology.
MINERAL RESOURCES

 Refers to nonfood, nonfuel resources such as metals (e.g. aluminum,

palladium) and industrial materials (e.g. gypsum, phosphate).
 The development of mineral resources depends on more than just the
presence of a mineral deposit.
 Each mineral has a “concentration factor” to determine if an area has
an economically valuable mineral deposit.
MINERAL RESOURCES

 Mineral resources comes from:

 High-Temperature Reactions
 Low-Temperature Reactions
 Physical Rearrangement
MINERAL RESOURCES

 High-Temperature Reactions
 Form rocks which are called Ores.
 Anore contains economic concentrations of
metallic minerals
 Hydrothermaland magmatic processes are some of
the common types of this reaction
MINERAL RESOURCES

 Hydrothermal Process
 Mineral
deposits are near the top of
magma chambers
 Generates ores from hydrothermal
solutions
 Magma and water are the key
ingredients
MINERAL RESOURCES

 Magmatic Process
 Mineral deposits are at the
lower portion of magma
chambers via crystal
settling
 Formsrocks called
pegmatites
MINERAL RESOURCES

 Low-Temperature Reactions
 Mineral deposits comes from sedimentary
rocks
 Minerals can come from sedimentary rocks
with residual mineral deposits
Residual mineral deposits are formed
most rapidly in areas with rapid
weathering rates
MINERAL RESOURCES

 Weathering
 the breaking down of rocks, soil, and minerals
through contact with the Earth's atmosphere,
waters, and biological organism.
MINERAL RESOURCES

 Some industrial minerals are also formed by low-

temperature reactions from the chemical and
biochemical reactions of their sedimentary rocks
 Limestone – lime
 Gypsum – cement
 Salt deposits – table salt
 Phosphate rocks – phosphate
MINERAL RESOURCES

 Physical Rearrangement
 Placer deposits
 naturalconcentration of heavy minerals caused
by the effect of gravity on moving particles.
 Foundin present-day streams or in ancient
stream deposits preserved in rocks.