Re what mining is:
There are often semantic problems in making general categorizations.
Segregation of AS-MINED materials from those which are the PRODUCTS of mined
materials is the real issue here.
Helmut correctly describes how an as-mined ore, bauxite, is elaborated into a
processed material, alumina. And Martin is correct when he points out that
neither alumina nor cement is mined -- only their raw materials or feedstocks
are mined.
An analogy would be to classify bread as a farm or agricultural product.
Wheat is such a product, but is bread or spaghetti, being derivatives of
agricultural feedstocks (no pun intended). Other examples abound.
Correspondingly, is it correct to consider pig iron, steel, or brass to be a
mined material?
As we know, a tremendous number of products are DERIVED FROM minerals, ores
or mined materials, but should finished goods or processed, intermediate
materials be classified as mined material?
Noel Kirshenbaum
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