Birdseed Mining Activity

Purpose Mining is a complex process in which relatively small amounts of valuable or useful mineral resources (metals/ores, liquids, gases) are extracted from the earth’s crust. This activity will illustrate how this “needle in a haystack” process works.

Objective: Students will be able to experience “hands-on” the difficulty that minerals face in locating mineral deposits. With economics – a less valuable commodity may be more profitable because it is more abundant. Clean, environmentally responsible mining is important for all mining operations to perform and to pay for reclamation work.

Materials: shallow pan, worksheet, bird seed, beads, “undiscovered resources”

Procedures:

1.  Work in groups of 3-4. Gather materials and pour your “undiscovered resources” into shallow pan.

2.  The area you will be mining is assumed to have several metal ores to be found based on its “known” geology.

3.  The minerals in your sample are represented below:

  1. Gold beads = gold
  2. Silver/light blue = silver
  3. Dark blue = copper
  4. Sunflower seeds = iron
  5. All other seeds = waste
  6. While beads = The white beads represent incentives or rebates that will be deducted from the cost of Reclamation. In the mining world, these might represent the refund of a portion of a reclamation bond as a result of concurrent reclamation or a cost reduction for some type of environmental mitigation service performed by the company.

4.  You will be given 5 minutes to mine the maximum resources available. This is to simulate the length of time a mine will be economically viable. Mines are not often run until all possible ore has been removed, just until economics dictates.

5.  Record the number of beads “mined” in the appropriate places. Fill in reclamation fees of $1200 and your damage fines (assessed by group)

6.  Clean up. Return materials. Begin to answer the questions as a group. You will need to refer to your text or the Internet for assistance. You may want to type your answers.

Analysis and Conclusion

1.  Which kind of mining is most appropriate for this type of endeavor? (reference ch14 for assistance) Describe the basic process for this type of mining.

2.  What mineral resources are extracted locally – FL? Describe how they are extracted. What kinds of restoration are done on sites once the minerals have been extracted?

3.  Globally, where would this sort of location be found (where these ore resources might be found all in the same spot), if anywhere? Explain how you came to your answer, site where you found the data to support your answer)

4.  Locate current market prices for the metals you’ve mined. Make sure the quotes you find for the prices are in US $ and are for the correct units (ounces or tons) of the metal.

5.  Based on your calculations, which mineral in this activity would you prefer seeking? Is this the one with the highest unit price? How might your opinion change if impact fees were added and possible subsidies were removed from pricing?

6.  Describe 3 possible impacts on the environment of your mining site. Associated with each, describe a way to counteract the damage.

7.  Should we halt mining in the face of environmental damage it causes? Identify 3 impacts of severely restricting the mining industry.

8.  Should impact fees be assessed on minerals or metals that US companies mine for in other countries? What kind of impact could that have on economics and the market?

Birdseed Mining Spreadsheet

GOLD BEAD: Each gold bead = 10 oz. of gold ($280/oz)

Number of beads ______x 10 oz. = ______x $_____ = ______price value

SILVER BEAD: Each silver bead = 10 oz. of silver ($5.70/oz)

Number of beads ______x 10 oz. = ______x $______= ______price value

BLUE BEAD: Each blue bead = 100 lbs. of iron (or 2,000 lbs of iron- 1 ton; $23/ton)

Number of beads ______x 100 lbs. = ______x $______= ______price value

SUNFLOWER SEEDS: Each Sunflower seed = 100 lbs. of copper (or 2,000 lbs of copper - 1 ton; $0.75/ton)

# of Sunflower seeds ______x 100 lbs. = ______x $______= ______price value

TOTAL Product Value = ______

SUBTRACT cost of Environmental Damage fines ($1,200)= ______

SUBTOTAL = ______

Number of WHITE beads ______x $100.00 = ______

SUBTRACT reclamation cost from SUBTOTAL = ______

GRAND TOTAL = ______