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This page has archives. Sections older than 365 days may be automatically archived by Lowercase sigmabot III when more than 5 sections are present.

The first sentence is now "Since the beginning of civilization, people have used stone, ceramics and, later, metals found on or close to the Earth's surface." Aren't naturally occurring ceramics (and amorphous glass) called stones? What about before civilization?

How about "For millions of years, our ancestors have used stone, clay and, increasingly, metals found on or close to the Earth's surface."

There is a draft article Draft:History of mining in the works about the history of mining. Do you think here we could make it another one or should merge it in? Immanuelle ❤️💚💙 (talk to the cutest Wikipedian) 07:02, 12 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Mining is the extraction of valuable geological materials from the Earth and other astronomical objects.

Really? Where are the reliable sources that demonstrate current mining activities on astronomical objects other than the Earth?

Is there any need to specify the Earth? Why not say something like: Mining is the extraction of geological resources from the planetary crust., or Mining is the process of extracting geological resources from the regolith or bedrock.

or following, eg. the lede from Atmospheric mining: Mining is the process of extracting valuable materials or other non-renewable resources from the planetary crust.

Using science fiction as a counter-example to justify the current lede is ... fictional; if we are concerned with such uses of mining, then Adamantium,Dilithium (Star Trek), Computronium, and Unobtainium should have their own mineral pages (along with the relevant mining processes and hazards). — 20040302 (talk) 13:16, 21 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I made changes based on the Encyclopedia Brittanica approach. Reconrabbit 20:51, 28 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

"(As time goes on and richer deposits are exhausted – and technology improves – this number is going down to .5 g and less.)"

This could be changed to, "When richer, better quality deposits are exhausted, new technology is needed to exact less ore from worse quality deposits." The original is unclear on how less ore is mined when technology is improving. I also can't find a citation for the 0.5g so I omitted this from my edit suggestion. The citation I used for this is Patiño Douce, A.E. (2016) Metallic Mineral Resources in the Twenty-First Century. I. Historical Extraction Trends and Expected Demand. Nat Resour Res 25, 71–90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-015-9266-z Mbrookemac (talk) 01:55, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 12 January 2024 and 10 April 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Russellmorden (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Russellmorden (talk) 21:47, 12 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]