Rocks Minerals Resources Lab Activity

Rocks and Minerals as Resources Lab Activity Title: Cookie Mining Costs and Revenue Table Costs Land Purchase Price of Land Area (cookie cost) = ____$5______ Equipment Flat Toothpick: ___2______ × $2.00 = _$4.00______ Revenue Round Toothpick: ___0____× $5.00 = _$0.00______ Paperclip: ___2______ × $7.00 = _$14.00______ Replacement Costs (for broken equipment) = ___$2.00____ Total Equipment Rental Cost = ___$20.00________ Mining and Reclamation Mining & Reclamation Time: ____6.25___ minutes × $2.00/minute = ___$12.5________ Number of chocolate chips obtained = ____8______ × $2.00 = ____$16.00______ Total Revenue Fines EPA assessed "using your hands" fine ($2.00/incidence) = __2_______ EPA assessed reclamation fines ($1.00/unreclaimed square) = ___0______ Total Fines =__$4.00-_________ To calculate your profits or losses, you must add together your costs and fines and subtract this total value from your revenue. (Revenue – Fines – Costs) = ____-$8________ (a positive number shows a profit; negative shows a loss) Reflection Questions: 1. Describe the ways mining in the real world can affect society, ecosystems, and the environment of a specific region. Mining has a very large effect on society, ecosystems, and the environment. Environmental impacts of mining can result in erosion, sinkholes, and the contamination of soil. The process of mining also has an impact on the atmosphere from carbon emissions which influence human health and biodiversity. 2. Using your answers to the question above, list the criteria you believe should be addressed by land reclamation. Prioritize your criteria by order of importance. Explain the order you selected for your criteria. I would make sure all mining equipment had to be removed because old machinery can be dangerous and difficult to work around. Secondly, I would have frequent checks to make sure everything is still safe, so no one gets hurt during or after the reclamation process. Lastly, I would run tests to make sure the land is safe for whatever is planned to o on it. 3. Complete reclamation of mined land is the solution you practiced in this cookie mining lab. What reasoning supports this solution as one that will provide the largest benefits and least costs to society and the environment? Reclaiming damaged land allows people to restore the nature and various wildlife. Damaged land affects many species of animals and plants that reside in that area. By restoring the land, you are allowing the land to grow back to how it used to be. Mine restoration allows for agricultural, social, and economic development. Land reclamation acts as a switch to environmental damages and destruction such as soil damage and toxic waste. 4. Legislation requiring the reclamation of the land makes mining more expensive. How important is this constraint to achieving complete reclamation of mined land? An additional expense is most definitely a good thing because means the people actually paying for it care about restoring the land and the land is already damaged from the mining making it more expensive can help fund the reclamation. 5. Were the minerals evenly distributed throughout the cookie mines? In the real world, how important is this constraint (distribution of mineral ore) to achieving complete reclamation of mined land? In my cookie the minerals were not distributed evenly, just as in the real world where minerals are not in certain areas and are spread out randomly. No the minerals aka Chocolate chips were not evenly distributed throughout the rest of the cookie. In the real world this makes the mining process harder and makes it take longer. With the mineral ore being so dispersed it means more land is destroyed in order to find more minerals which then makes the reclamation process difficult. 6. Were you able to restore the land exactly as it was prior to mining? In your experience, would reclamation of mined land be able to restore and stabilize the natural system of the region? No, I was unable to completely place the minerals exactly as it had been prior to mining the chips out of the cookie. This tells use that when we remove something out of the ground, we cannot fix the ground as it had previously been before the mining. Refining Design 1. How would you refine your mining techniques in this activity in order to maximize reclamation? Be sure to include proposed changes in costs, safety, and restoration of the area. 2. Predict how your refined mining techniques could affect the social and environmental stability of the region.