Link to the University's Future Students portal Humans have used
almost every type of resource that can be found on or near the
surface of the earth for tens of thousands of years. And almost
all have been based on rocks. From the weathering of rocks we
get soil for agriculture. From whole rocks, we've built our
cities and our monuments and great works of art (think granite,
marble and sandstone - the Red Pyramid of Egypt, Michelangelo's
David, the US White House). The basis of our civilisation Our
lives and the way we live them depend on rocks and the mining of
rocks, and always have. Along with agriculture, mining is the
very foundation, the very bedrock of our civilisation. From the
mining of rocks, we've extracted all the materials that have
advanced human civilisation,such as iron, coal, copper, tin,
quartz and aluminium. - Iron ore to make steel, which is used in
up to 95% of all metal manufacturing every year. - Coal, a
combustible rock, is the major source of energy for the
production of electricity w