1_readme.txt

  The Life Cycle of a Mineral Deposit--A Teacher's Guide for 
  Hands-On Mineral Education Activities

  By Dave Frank, John Galloway, and Ken Assmus

  2005 

  General Information Product 17

  U.S. Department of the Interior
  Gale Norton, Secretary 

  U.S. Geological Survey
  P. Patrick Leahy, Acting Director 


  Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for 
  descriptive purposes  only and does not imply 
  endorsement by the U.S. Government. 


  QUICK START

  For those who already have Adobe Reader installed, open 
  the file gip-17.pdf


  INTRODUCTION 

  This teacher's guide defines what a mineral deposit is 
  and how a mineral deposit is identified and measured, how 
  the mineral resources are extracted, and how the mining 
  site is reclaimed; how minerals and mineral resources are 
  processed; and how we use mineral resources in our every-
  day lives. Included are 10 activitybased learning 
  exercises that educate students on basic geologic 
  concepts; the processes of finding, identifying, and 
  extracting the resources from a mineral deposit; and the 
  uses of minerals. The guide is intended for K through 12 
  Earth science teachers and students and is designed to 
  meet the National Science Content Standards as defined by 
  the National Research Council (1996). To assist in the 
  understanding of some of the geology and mineral terms, 
  see the Glossary (appendix 1) and Minerals and Their Uses 
  (appendix 2).

  The process of finding or exploring for a mineral 
  deposit, extracting or mining the resource, recovering 
  the resource, also known as beneficiation, and reclaiming 
  the land mined can be described as the "life cycle" of a 
  mineral deposit. The complete process is time consuming 
  and expensive, requiring the use of modern technology and 
  equipment, and may take many years to complete. Sometimes 
  one entity or company completes the entire process from 
  discovery to reclamation, but often it requires multiple 
  groups with specialized experience working together.

  Mineral deposits are the source of many important 
  commodities, such as copper and gold, used by our 
  society, but it is important to realize that mineral 
  deposits are a nonrenewable resource. Once mined, they 
  are exhausted, and another source must be found. New 
  mineral deposits are being continuously created by the 
  Earth but may take millions of years to form. Mineral 
  deposits differ from renewable resources, such as 
  agricultural and timber products, which may be 
  replenished within a few months to several years.


  FILES AND FOLDERS: 

  1_readme.txt - this file. 

  autohtml.exe, autorun.inf, showhtml.ini, and 
  usgsid.ico - Windows operating files. 

  gip-17.pdf - Teacher's Guide (40 pages; 4.2 MB) 

  Acrobat - Installer for Acrobat Reader for Macintosh and 
  Windows. 


  SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 

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  http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html


  This report is for sale on CD-ROM from:

   U.S. Geological Survey 
   Information Services, National Mapping Division 
   Box 25046 
   Denver Federal Center 
   Denver, CO 80225-0046 
   Telephone: (888) ASK-USGS

  Current pricing information is available from 
  http://mapping.usgs.gov/esic/prices/.

  ISBN:  1-411-30665-1


  The bibliographical reference for this publication is: 

  Frank, Dave, Galloway, John, and Assumus, Ken, 2005, The 
       life cycle of a mineral deposit-A teacher's guide 
       for hands-on mineral education activities:  U.S. 
       Geological Survey General Information Product 17, 
       40 p. (CD-ROM).

  This report and any updates to it are available on line
  at http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2005/17/