Skip to Main Content

Secondary Primary Home

Science8 Mineral Resources: Home

undefined

Resource Key

LEVEL 1: Brief information in an easy-to-read, structured format. May use informal language.

LEVEL 2: Longer articles, broader topic coverage. Includes some subject-specific language.

LEVEL 3: Detailed information, using subject-specific language. (Includes analytical articles)

Found a good resource?

Suggest a website

. . . we'll add it to this guide.

Teacher Librarian

Copyright

Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. (CC BY-NC-SA)

Developer: Barbara Stout (Teacher Librarian), St Stephen's School (2020)

Minerals and Ores (2013)

An animated explanation of minerals and ores and their uses. Lesson plan and notes available.

SOURCE: ClickView, produced by Sterling Pixels, Rated E, Duration: 3:39

Minerals in Australia

Australia produces 19 useful minerals in significant amounts, from over 350 operating mines. From these minerals, useful materials such as metals can be extracted. Australia is one of the world's leading producers of gold, lead, bauxite (aluminium ore), iron ore, lithium, diamond, rare earth elements, uranium and zinc. Australia also has large mineral sand deposits of ilmenite, zircon and rutile. In addition, Australia produces large quantities of black coal, manganese, antimony, nickel, silver, cobalt, copper and tin.

Mining occurs in all states of Australia, the Northern Territory and Christmas Island. There is no mining in the Australian Capital Territory apart from quarries used for construction materials. Australia's Identified Mineral Resources, has up-to-date information on mineral resources in Australia including resource estimates, production and export figures.

undefined

Major mining and mineral deposits in Australia, 2016.

SOURCE: Geoscience Australia.

Assignment

Your task is to choose a mineral that interests you, carry out research and write a report (approx. 3 pages).

Assignment Documents:

Vocabulary

Cleavage: The property of a mineral breaking along its crystallographic planes.

Colour: One of the most important properties used in determining minerals.

Dense: a. Compact, fine-grained, lacking pore space. b. Rock or mineral with a high specific gravity.

Dull: Those minerals in which there is a total absence of luster, as chalk or kaolin.

Fracture: a. The way in which a mineral breaks, other than its cleavage. b. A crack, joint, or break in rocks.

Hardness: Hardness is the resistance of a mineral to abrasion or scratching.

Lustre: The way a mineral reflects light or shines. It is one of the means for distinguishing minerals.

Metallic: Minerals having the luster of a metal, for example gold and copper.

Specific gravity: The ratio of a specimen's weight compared with the weight of an equal volume of water. 

Streak: A mineral's powder color.

Find more . . .