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Economic Geology

9. Mines & Yours. Economic Geology. “If you can't grow it, it has to be mined”. Our rocky economy. Economic stones. Road building (~50%). Concrete (~50%). Aggregates. UK - 200-250 million tonnes/yr Railway ballast, iron and steel, agriculture. Economic granite.

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Economic Geology

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  1. 9. Mines & Yours Economic Geology

  2. “If you can't grow it, it has to be mined”

  3. Our rocky economy

  4. Economic stones

  5. Road building (~50%) Concrete (~50%) Aggregates UK - 200-250 million tonnes/yr Railway ballast, iron and steel, agriculture

  6. Economic granite Very high compressive strength Dimension / armour stone Hard to carve Feldspar decomposes

  7. The only geological sport

  8. Economic dolerite Very strong Roadstone/aggregate

  9. Slating the economy Wales: 15,000 men employed in 1890s

  10. Economic sandstone Common, fairly strong Dimension / paving stone Weathers

  11. Economic limestone Dimension stone Cement Aggregate

  12. Dudley limestone

  13. Fossil-fuelled furnaces

  14. Yorkshire's Industrial Coast

  15. Ironstones

  16. Cleveland Ironstone Mines

  17. Why Are The Ironstones There?

  18. Fossilized Ropes?

  19. Fossil shrimp burrows!

  20. Shrimpy miners = human miners

  21. Sediment-hosted minerals Bronze Age copper mine Great Orme, Llandudno

  22. The origins of ores Magmatism • Fractionation / Immiscibility

  23. The origins of ores Hydrothermal processes: • Brines • Metamorphic fluids Metamorphic shearing Sedimentary placers

  24. Rare earths and renewables

  25. Rare earth elements Not that rare Soft, malleable, metallic Conductive, magnetic

  26. Shifting sources Global product

  27. Fossil fuels Oil and gas

  28. North Sea oil & gas

  29. UK energy balance (Figure from DECC report)

  30. Conventional / Unconventional

  31. Britain for shale? Carboniferous NW England Jurassic SE England

  32. The impact of power Vidal et al. - Nature Geoscience (2013)

  33. The trajectory of demand Vidal et al. - Nature Geoscience (2013)

  34. Next week: The Future Predictive Geology - Earthquakes - Tectonics - Climate • + A Final Review

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