A processing plant costs many millions of dollars to build and operate. The success of this expenditure relies on the assays of a few small samples. Decisions affecting millions of dollars are made on the basis of a small fraction of the bulk of the ore body. It is therefore very important that this small fraction is as representative as possible of the bulk material. Special care needs to be taken in any sampling regime, and a considerable effort in statistical analysis and sampling theory has gone into quantifying the procedures and precautions to be taken.
The final sampling regime adopted is, however, a compromise between what theory tells us should be done and the cost and difficulty in achieving this in practice.

Minerals and metals are essential components for the growth of human society. The need to survive taught prehistoric Paleolithic men the use of stones as tools as early as 20,000 years ago. The discovery of minerals, their exploitation, and use became many-fold with the advent of civilization and is continuing today. A mineral deposit is too small in size compared to the vast Earth’s crust. Near-surface deposits have been discovered over the centuries, ores have been mined, and metals extracted. The future search for concealed types, rarely showing surface signatures, will be opportunities and challenges. New discoveries will require state-of-the-art exploration techniques, trained labor, scientific knowledge, adequate experience, high-end data processing systems, and interpretation skills <...>

The Middle Miocene Orduzu volcanic suite, which is a part of the widespread Neogene Yamadag˘ volcanism of Eastern Anatolia, consists of a rhyolitic lava flow, rhyolitic dykes, a trachyandesitic lava flow and basaltic trachyandesitic dykes. Existence of mafic enclaves and globules in some of the volcanic rocks, and microtextures in phenocrysts indicate that magma mingling and mixing between andesitic and basaltic melts played an important role in the evolution of the volcanic suite. Major and trace element characteristics of the volcanic rocks are similar to those formed in convergent margin settings.

The Earth’s Crust is the topmost solid layer of the Earth which has a thickness of 30–35 km in the continents and 5–6 km in the oceans (the Mantle and the Core being the other two inner parts of the earth). According to F.W. Clarke, the abundance of Chemical elements in the earth’s crust is shown in Table 1.1. The chemical elements that occur in the earth’s crust in compound forms are known as minerals. However, certain elements like Gold, Silver, Platinum and Copper often occur in native form.

Reports of economic crises, investor anxiety and the impact of climate change al help paint a gloomy picture of the future. More optimistic predictions may be met with scorn and accused of lack of ‘reality.’ Nonetheless, one of the many lessons of history is that accurate factual data provides by far the best basis for discussion of future alternative paths of development, optimistic or otherwise (Raw Materials Database 2012).
The objectives of this paper are to show: (1) that positive future trends related to mining and metals are evident (Ericsson and Hodge 2012); and (2) that a number of gloom-laden myths should be refuted

The purpose of this Handbook is to provide, in highly accessible form, selected critical data for professional and student solid Earth and planetary geophysicists. Coverage of topics and authors were carefully chosen to fulfill these objectives. These volumes represent the third version of the “Handbook of Physical Constants.” Several generations of solid Earth scientists have found these handbooks’to be the most frequently used item in their personal library. The first version of this Handbook was edited by F. Birch, J. F. Schairer, and H. Cecil Spicer and published in 1942 by the Geological Society of America (GSA) as Special Paper 36.

The purpose of this Handbook is to provide, in highly accessible form, selected critical data for professional and student solid Earth and planetary geophysicists. Coverage of topics and authors were carefully chosen to fulfill these objectives.

Since the arrival of European colonists in New York, the extraction of mineral wealth has been an important societal goal. Mining, then and now, provides the raw materials for consumer goods. Iron was used for cooking utensils and stoves, among other things. It was the basis for many construction projects. The availability of “hydraulic” cement was as important in the success of the Erie Canal as it is to the maintenance of the New York State Thruway. Mines provided materials to improve the standard of living of the populace. Late nineteenth century clay mines in the Hudson River Valley provided clay to make literally billions of bricks used to replace the highly flammable wooden building materials of New York City. The State of New York has, since the 1980s, ranked about fifteenth in the nation in terms of mineral value extracted annually.

This book contains papers presented at the Engineering Foundation Conference on mineral matter in fuels held on November 2-7, 1997 in Kona, Hawaii. The conference is one of a continuing series that was initiated by the CEGB Marchwood Engineering Laboratories in 1963. The conference was to be eventually organised by the Engineering Foundation as the need for multi-disciplinary work related to controlling ash effects in combustors became apparent. The conference covers both the science and the applications. The papers also present case histories, particularly for current fuel technologies, developments in advanced technologies for power generation and mathematical modelling of these processes.

Geotechnical failures, specially the catastrophic ones, are an excellent experience and a source of inspiration to improve our current understanding of phenomena and our procedures and tools for analysis and prediction. This unconventional manner to learn Geomechanics is the essence of this book. In general, Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical text books describe first the concepts and the theoretical developments and then apply them to interpret or solve a particular application. This book has a different approach. The case (a failure) is first described and then an explanation is sought. This approach is developed through a set of steps which can be summarized as follows.