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The El Chino Mine located near Silver City, New Mexico is an open-pit copper mineMining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually (but not always) from an ore body, vein or (coal) seam. Materials commonly recovered by mining include bauxite, coal, copper, diamonds, iron (from haematite and limonite), gold, lead, manganese, magnesium, nickelThis article is about the element nickel. See also nickel (U. coin) and nickel (Canadian coin). Nickel is a metallic chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Ni and atomic number 28. Notable characteristics Nickel is silvery white metal, phosphateIn chemistry, a phosphate is a polyatomic ion or radical consisting of one phosphorus atom and four oxygen. In the ionic form, it carries a -3 formal charge, and is denoted PO3-. In a biochemical setting, a free phosphate ion in solution is called inorgan, platinumPlatinum is also a certification by the RIAA and other world recording industries, see: RIAA certification Platinum is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. A heavy, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white, saltFor other meanings of the word salt see salt (disambiguation In chemistry, a salt is a composed of positively charged cations and negatively charged anions, so that the product is neutral and without a net charge. They are typically the product of a chemi, silverThis page is about Silver the element. For the color, see Silver Silver is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Ag ( L. Argentum and atomic number 47. A soft white lustrous transition metal, silver has the highest electrical and th, tinThe word tin is often used to mean a can, even if it does not contain any tin metal. Tin is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Sn ( L. Stannum and atomic number 50. This silvery, malleable poor metal that is not easily oxidized i, titaniumscandium titanium vanadium Ti Zr Full table General Name, Symbol, NumberTitanium, Ti, 22 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 4, 4 , d Density, Hardness 4507 kg/m3, 6 Appearance Silvery metallic Atomic properties Atomic weight 47. 867 am, uraniumUranium is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol U and atomic number 92. A heavy, silvery-white, toxic, metallic , and naturally- radioactive element, uranium belongs to the actinide series and its isotope uranium-235 is used as the, and zinc. Other highly useful materials that are mined include clay, sand, cinder, gravel, granite, and limestone. Any material that cannot be grown from agricultural processes must be mined. Mining in a wider sense can also include extraction of oil and gas.
1 History
The oldest known mine in the archaeological record is the "Lion Cave" in Swaziland. At this site, which has a radiocarbon age of 43,000 years, paleolithic humans mined for the iron-containing mineral hematite, which they presumably ground to produce the red pigment ochre.
Sites of a similar age where Neandertals may have mined flint for weapons and tools have been found in Hungary.
Another early mining operation was the turquoise mine operated by the ancient Egyptians at Wady Maghareh on the Sinai Peninsula. Turquoise was also mined in pre-Columbian America in the Cerillos Mining District in New Mexico, where a mass of rock 200 feet (60 m) in depth and 300 feet (90 m) in width was removed with stone tools; the mine dump covers 20 acres (81,000 mē).
