What are Mining and Quarrying?
Mining and quarrying extract a wide range of useful materials from the ground such as coal, metals, and stone. These substances are used widely in building and manufacturing industry, while precious stones have long been used for adornment and decoration. Mining and quarrying involve investigating potential sites of extraction, then getting the required material out of the ground, and finally processing with heat or chemicals to get out the metal or other substance of interest. All these operations may use large amounts of water.

Mining and quarrying can be very destructive to the environment. They have a direct impact on the countryside by leaving pits and heaps of waste material. The extraction processes can also contaminate air and water with Sulphur dioxide and other pollutants, putting wildlife and local populations at risk. More careful use of natural resources, including recycling, and also restoration efforts after mining and quarrying can help limit these environmental impacts.
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Impacts and Issues:
​Mining and quarrying have often been criticized for their social and environmental impact. Far fewer lives are claimed by the industry in modern times, thanks to improved technology and safety measures. However, mining was a difficult and dangerous job. Valuable materials like gold and diamonds have often helped finance corrupt regimes, crime, and terrorism while inhuman labour conditions have often been employed in their extraction.
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The environmental impacts of mining and quarrying are several. While the extractions are underway, the landscape is visibly disfigured and habitat loss can be extensive. The mining operations themselves and the accompanying spoil heaps cause a drastic change in the location with direct destruction of habitat and blocking or burying nearby bodies of water. Mining can often affect local hydrology, causing changes in the water flow as well as quality.

​Mining and quarrying involve three distinct stages. First there is exploration and assessment to see whether a resource is worth exploiting. This might involve a certain amount of drilling into the ground. Then the substance is extracted by whatever technique is most appropriate to its location. This is often dictated by the depth of the resource under the surface. Open pit and shallow strip mining are commonly used to extract resources up to 600 ft (180 m) below ground. The mining process removes the source and the rock and soil, known as overburden, on top of it. The overburden is stacked up into a so-called spoil heap close by. Deeper resources will be extracted by underground mining that can go to about 8,000 ft (2,440 m). Beyond this, temperatures increase to a level that makes mining impracticable. Rock removed to create tunnels for mining is generally added to the spoil heap. Finally, the ore or other resource must be processed to extract the metal or material of interest. This usually involves some kind of heat or chemical treatment. For example, smelting is a common form of processing and involves roasting an ore to release the metal it contains.
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