Current course offerings

Please Note: Course profiles marked as not available may still be in development.

Course description

The course is designed to appeal to Science, Engineering, and Business students interested in how mineral sciences and mineral availability impact our society's ability to implement a low-carbon future and protect the environment. It introduces mineralogy to first-year students and is a prerequisite for students pursuing several second-year level courses in Earth Sciences. Minerals are the fundamental building units of the rocks that make up the Earth and other planets in the solar system. This course will examine the chemical and crystallographic features that distinguish different groups of minerals from one another and explain why different types of mineral are found in specific parts of the Earth and solar system. You will learn about the major classes of mineral including silicates, carbonates, phosphates, oxides, hydroxides, sulphates and sulphides, their significance, common uses, and how to recognise their defining features in hand specimen and under a microscope. Silicates are the main building blocks of the terrestrial planets and are used in ceramics, electronics, buildings and as aggregates. Minerals have been critically important in the evolution of life, carbonate and silica form invertebrate exoskeletons, and vertebrate teeth and bones are made of phosphates. Engineered precipitation of carbonate minerals provides one possible mechanism of removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Phosphates are a major host for rare earth elements and sulphides and oxides host Cu, Ni, and Co, which are strategic elements needed for electric cars and smart phones. The course will briefly examine how different minerals contain the elements needed for modern society and how the mineralogical controls on these elements impact strategies for their extraction.

Archived offerings