Click on the minerals below to read their strange facts.
Coal Copper
Diamond Fluorspar
Gems and Gemstones Gold
Lead Mercury
Natural Gas Petroleum
Quartz Salt
Silver Uranium
Zinc
The Largest "M" in the World
60% of U.S. electricity is produced from coal.
Copper
Copper ore and Sacagawea Golden Dollar photos
© Jessica Mariskanish
The new U.S. Golden Dollar featuring Sacagawea is over 88% copper, and no gold at all.
Diamond is the symbol of true love.
Fluorspar is used in toothpaste, emery wheels, and paint pigment.
Gems
and Gemstones
© S Howe-Mariskanish
The word
turquoise comes from French word Turquie, meaning Turkey, the country people
thought the stone came from.
The only North American gem included in the Crown Jewels of England is the Montana Yogo Sapphire.
In the middle ages, men called alchemists tried to change all kinds of other metals into gold! They even thought it could improve their health by eating it!
Originally, the U.S. mint made $10, $5, and $2.50 coins of solid gold. Minting of gold (except specialty coins) stopped in 1933, during the Great Depression .
There
is $ 100,000,000,000 in gold and silver bullion at the U.S. Bullion Depository
in Ft. Know, Kentucky,
The
San Francisco Forty Niners were named after the 1849 California Gold Rush
miners. And their gold-colored uniforms represent the gold.
Lead
Galena
photo
© Jessica Mariskanish
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
(one the Seven Wonders of the World) built 600 B.C. had floors covered with
soldered lead sheets to hold in all the water and soil.
Lead piping has been found in near-perfect condition in Pompeii,
and Rome. The piping was used for water conductors.
The word plumber comes from the Latin word "plum bum"
which means "spout".
Molten lead was poured over castle walls onto attackers. OUCH! We
thought that was water!
The inside of pencils were made of lead, now, it's graphite.
Mercury will not wet a mirror, but will roll off clean!
Natural Gas was only used locally for the first 100 years in the U.S. because there was no safe way to haul it.
The first U.S. city lit by Natural Gas was Fredonia, New York in 1821.
The Alaskan Pipeline is 800 miles long!
Nicknames are "Texas Tea" and "Black Gold"
Big towns in the Southwest that were built because of Petroleum strikes were called "Boomtowns" ,also.
Pyrite-
© Jessica Mariskanish
This yellow shiny iron disulfide often tricked miners into thinking it was gold. That's how it got its nickname, "Fool's Gold".
Quartz crystals are believed, by some, to hold magical healing powers.
Salt
© Smithsonian Institution
If the world's oceans dried up, 4,500,000 cubic miles of rock salt would be left...about 14 times bigger than the entire continent of Europe!
Originally, the U.S. mint made the dollar, half-dollar , quarter, dime and half-dime out of solid silver. Now, the coins that look like silver are made of copper, nickel and nickel alloy.
When miners struck gold in Nevada (The Comstock Lode), the were really slowed down by the huge amounts of gray clay. It wasn't until later they found out it was silver in the mud!
Glass made with uranium
during the 1930's glows under ultraviolet
light. The energy produced in a nuclear power plant from one pound of
uranium equals 1650 tons of coal. Because of its density (it is 18 times as dense as water and
almost 1.7 times as dense as lead) even after all the radioactivity is used up,
depleted uranium is used for gyroscope weights, to color glass pottery, to make
radiation shields and ammunition. It has even been used as a keel for a racing
yacht, because the high density made a smaller keel with less drag in the water.
As it decays (gives off its radioactive waves) the end product left behind is lead. By measuring the amount of lead in rock that also contains uranium, scientists can make estimates of the age of the Earth.
Exploring:
Locating uranium ore can be done with a portable Geiger counter. Also many of the related minerals glow under ultraviolet light, so a small portable ultraviolet light is useful. Exploring with more sensitive radiation counting equipment has been done from moving cars and airplanes.
The U.S. has the largest proved reserves and is the world’s leading producer of Uranium. In 1980 the U.S. accounted for nearly ¼ of the world’s uranium production.
Since 1982, the U.S. penny (one cent) is not solid copper, but is really zinc plated with copper.
The new U.S. Golden Dollar's golden color is made of manganese brass alloy which is 12% zinc, and has no gold at all.
The Largest "M" in the World
© Ian Barnes
It's in Platteville, Wisconsin. What does it
have to do with mining? It was a marker for miners coming to mine lead here.