Mining

earth science · resources · industry

Digging for treasure. Mining means extracting valuable materials from the ground, like metals, gemstones, coal, and salt. These materials can't be grown like crops, so we have to dig them out.

All kinds of stuff. Miners extract ores (rocks containing useful metals), gems like diamonds, coal for fuel, limestone for building, and even salt. The material must be valuable enough to sell and make a profit.

Deeper than farming. Mining gets things that agriculture can't provide and that we can't easily make in factories. It's one of the ways humans gather the raw materials needed for civilization.

Beyond just rocks. Mining includes pulling out petroleum (oil), natural gas, and even water. Basically, if it's a non-renewable resource buried in Earth, mining is how we get it out.

Worth the effort. An ore only counts as a real mining target if it contains something valuable, can actually be extracted from the ground, and will make money when sold.