Lime in the Mining Industry

The world's ability to support its population is sustained by the many products provided by the mining and metals industry. Mined materials are needed to build roads, hospitals, automobiles and houses, to make computers and satellites, generate electricity and provide the many other goods and services that consumers enjoy daily.

Mining

Consider a world without advanced manufacturing, agriculture or mass-scale energy production.

Virtually all of our needs must be dug from the earth, grown in the soil, or taken from the sea.

It is estimated, for instance, that we need to produce more than 40,000 pounds of new minerals a year for every person living in the United States. As the global population grows, increased demand for electronics, medicine, telecommunications, transportation and housing will accelerate the worldwide demand for minerals.

Limestone is one of those minerals. Aside from the many vital uses to which lime itself is put, limestone and quicklime products are used to help extract many of the other minerals the world relies on now and in the future.

Lime and limestone products are used for various mining applications including coagulation, flotation and recovery, milk of lime or lime slurry solutions, tailings treatment, acid mine drainage and storage activities. 

Did you know?

After processing, products derived from limestone can eventually revert to their original chemical form by reacting with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere or from industrial processes.