Deck the Halls: Role Mining at Christmas – Special Feature

As the first notes of a Mariah Carey classic “All I want for Christmas is you” The echo in every store begins, and the holiday spirit begins.

Once the Christmas tree is decorated, it’s time to deck the halls with lights and ornaments – each based on earth-sourced minerals.

From the Christmas tree to the lights, decorations and glitter on greeting cards and wrapping paper, Mining.com.au Explores the science behind Christmas with the different extracted minerals that make our holidays sparkle.

Christmas trees are holiday icons in a sense, usually made of pine or fir (or for some, a gorgeous faux tree).

To grow, these Christmas icons rely – just as Santa’s workshop needs his elves – on fertilizers made from mined ores.

Tree holiday

Phosphate, potash and ammonia are the three necessary Necessary minerals in any fertilizers and are essential for growing ceremonial fir.

The International Fertilizer Federation estimates global fertilizer consumption at about 100 million tons of ammonia, 17 million tons of phosphate, and 31 million tons of potash. According to the association, Australia’s consumption on a total nutrient basis is just over 1% of global consumption.

The fertilizer industry, closely linked to the mining sector, converts millions of tons of air, natural gas and mined ores into plant nutrition products based on the three essential minerals mentioned above, Fertilizers Europe reports.

Another way the mining sector fits into Christmas is land use.

It takes between 4 and 15 years for a Christmas tree to grow, and there is a lot of pruning and shaping of the foliage to get the correct cone shape.

Virginia Tech says producing a Christmas tree can be a wonderful thing Optimal use of reclaimed mining lands.

At the Powell River Project in Virginia, the scientific expertise of Virginia Tech and other partners transformed a reclaimed mine site into a Christmas tree production facility.

Due to its moderate slopes that allow water drainage but do not impede equipment operation, as well as its non-compacted soil and favorable soil characteristics, the site has been shown to produce several types of Christmas trees since the mid-1990s.

The project is a public-private research and outreach partnership between Virginia Tech and other educational institutions and environmental organizations serving the southwestern coalfield region.

Research funded by the Powell River Project has focused on developing practical, cost-effective solutions to natural resource problems in coal mining regions of the Central Appalachian region.

Established in 1980, the Powell River Research and Education Center is among the world’s leading facilities for mining research and education programs.

Copper, LEDs and semiconductors

Gone are the days when the Christmas tree was covered with candles.

Now, small, energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) create an enchanting glow on trees, wreaths and wreaths. But what’s inside these modern fairy lights?

Primarily, copper—a metal mined in places like Australia, Canada, Chile, and the United States—is used to make insulated wires for LEDs. Copper is essential because it conducts electricity.

LEDs also contain nickel, indium, and gallium. These are the three basic elements used to create the semiconductor chips that make lights glow. The shift to LEDs has been driven in part by environmental concerns, as they last much longer and use less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs, the US Geological Survey reported.

A single LED has a lifespan of about 30,000 hours, which equates to about six hours of light per day for 12 years.

Extracted materials also play an important role in creating the different colors of LEDs. Metals and metals such as arsenic, boron, indium and nickel are elements used in different semiconductor materials that create the different colors in LEDs.

The Minerals Education Alliance adds that phosphor-based LEDs are the most popular because of their high-intensity white LEDs. These types of lights are made of a phosphate mixture containing manganese and rare earths, along with barium and aluminum oxide.

Sparkling jewelry

Now that you have placed the lights on the tree, it is time to hang the ornaments. Some of the most eye-catching holiday decorations — glass ornaments, tinsel, and wreaths — are made from a variety of metals.

One of the main minerals used in jewelry is silica sand. The silica is fused and can be shaped into a bulb, which is then fitted around a filament, which is usually tungsten.

Silica is sand composed of two main elements, silica and oxygen. It is most widely used in industrial and commercial sectors, and is widely available throughout the world.

The reason silica is used in Christmas lights is because of its resistance to high temperatures and its ability to retain argon around the filament.

Even sparkling festive glitter, which can be a shiny addition to wrapping paper, greeting cards and other holiday crafts, has a metallic base. These minerals are usually aluminum or mica, both of which are mined globally.

The Minerals Education Coalition says tree ornaments are made from natural resources similar to light bulbs — iron, copper, lead, etc. Ornamental hangers and tree stands are also made of various metal alloys, often containing iron or aluminium.

With Christmas approaching next week, it’s easy to forget that behind the twinkling lights, leafy Christmas trees and sparkling decorations, there’s an entire industry dedicated to bringing in the minerals needed to make the magic happen.

From fertilizers to help trees grow, to the copper and semiconductors inside LED lights, mining plays a crucial role in ensuring the holiday season is bright and festive.

Write to Aaliyah Rogan in Mining.com.au

Images: AgriBotix, Virginia Tech, Alma Metals & Unsplash