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Activities

What's it made of?

A Game of Matching Minerals and their Uses

GOLD
  • dental work
  • electronics (circuit boards)
  • space applications
  • jewelry
  • money

COPPER

  • electrical wire
  • coins
  • bronze (alloy copper + tin)
  • brass (copper + zinc)

ALUMINUM

  • cans
  • framing metal for airplanes

TIN

  • foot container coating
  • bronze
  • solder (variable: tin + lead)
  • pewter (tin ± lead + antimony)

ANTIMONY

  • fire retardant

ZINC

  • galvanizing
  • "sacrificial" anode(marine use)
  • brass (zinc + copper)

IRON

  • wrought iron
  • steel

TITANIUM

  • white paint pigment
  • submarine hulls
  • (strong, lightweight, non-magnetic metal)
  • military aircraft
  • label on "M&Ms"
SALT
  • bakery products (bread etc.)
  • dairy products (butter etc.)
  • salt licks for animals
  • table use
  • ice control
  • production of Na (sodium) metal
  • production of Cl (chlorine) gas

LIMESTONE

  • soil sweetener (change pH)
  • crushed rock (aggregate)
  • Portland cement manufacture
  • paint (as a filler)
  • paper (as a filler)

GYPSUM

  • manufacture of cement 
  • Plaster of Paris
  • soil conditioner
  • toothpaste
  • bakery products (as a filler)
  • filler in crayons

BARITE

  • drilling mud for oil wells medicine (coats soft parts for X-rays)
  • prints (as a filler)

ZEOLITES

  • water softener
  • pig deodorant
  • adsorbent for polluting materials
  • (radioactive elements, oil, etc.)

ANHYDRITE

  • soil conditioner (peanuts!)
  • cement for coal mine roof support

Directions:

Label one set of cards with the mineral commodity and the other set with a use. Match the mineral commodity with the use(s).  Have the students describe any suprises in mineral commodity uses and what they have learned from the exercise.

Prepared by:
Howard Donohoe, Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources

   

    Last Modified: 2004-12-10