10-98apes Mineral Extraction: Mining Name ____________Per___

Directions: You will be presented with a cookie that represents a land area, which contains mineral deposits. Copper ( ), coal ( ) and aluminum ( ). Your mining equipment consists of a toothpick which will be used to drill and mine the minerals.

Your job is to try to remove as much of the copper, coal and aluminum as possible. Imagine that the surface of the cookie(land) is where an ecosystem is found.

In the space below, sketch the cookie (land) surface before and after “mining.”

You will also need to take an inventory of the minerals that are mined and report these as percents of resources recovered. You also need to keep track of the waste cookie you extract (tailings). If you can replace the waste cookie crumbs this will reduce your waste %. You need to mass your cookie prior to mining!

Before Mining After Mining

Resource recovery (% mass):

______% copper _______% coal ________% aluminum _________% waste

Conclusion Questions:

1. What are some of the mining techniques that you used to extract the minerals?

2. How would you rate the environmental damage done to your cookie surface? Use the following scale and justify your answer: A= little damage B= some damage

C= moderate damage D= major damage F= unusable after mining

3. If mining were to continue in the future at this mining site, which minerals would be feasible to extract? Un-feasible?