Right under
our nose
Surprising uses
for B.C. minerals
By Ryan Stuart
Born of the Earth, an art installation
at the Britannia Mine Museum,
showcases how very much a part of
daily life mining and minerals are.
O
4/8/11 1:43:50 PM
ne of the first things visitors to
the Britannia Mine Museum
see is a room dedicated to
mining's contribution to
daily life. A spiralling installation rises
above the display floor, carrying some of
mining's end products – satellites, desks,
toilets and chairs – into the sky. The idea
is to educate people about the impact of
mining in society, a continuously evolving and expanding contribution.
The Mineral Information Institute
estimates that every child born in North
America after 2011 will consume 575
tonnes of non-fuel minerals during its
lifetime. While the majority of those
minerals will be in familiar uses – iron
in buildings, copper in electrical wires
and zinc in sunscreens – more and more
uses for minerals and metals will be in
surprising ways and places.
"New technology will continue to
provide the world with applications
using many mineral commodities and
materials made from minerals," says
John DeYoung, director of the National
Minerals Information Center at the US
Geological Survey. "But what will be
used to build these devices? Machinery
built from steel, aluminum and many
of the other materials that we take for
granted today."
While the majority of what's dug up in
B.C. ends up in traditional places, a growing percentage will end up being used in
alternative energy, medical delivery, sterilization, touch screens, microelectronics
and any number of other ways.
Photograph : Britannia Mine Museum
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