Minerals can be found throughout the world in the earth's crust but usually in such small amounts that they not worth extracting. Only with the help of certain geological processes are minerals concentrated into economically viable deposits. Mineral deposits can only be extracted where they are found.
Mineral deposits come in many shapes and sizes depending on where and how the mineral was concentrated. Minerals are concentrated by igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic processes:
The different ways to concentrate minerals can often work together. For example, oil and gas are made by a combination of sedimentary processes which trap and bury plant and animal remains, and then metamorphic processes which heat and change the remains into deposits of oil and gas.
Mineral exploration is undertaken in order to find mineral deposits that are suitable for commercial exploitation. A variety of methods may be used, including remote sensing (aerial photography and satellite images), geochemical surveys (looking for chemicals in soil and water which indicate certain minerals are present).
Once a mineral deposit has been found it has to be extracted from the ground to access the valuable minerals it contains. This can be done by opencast quarrying or underground mining. Certain minerals can also be extracted by pumping. This is the case with some salt extraction, where the salt is dissolved in water and pumped from underground, and almost all oil and gas.