Earth is made up of rocks and rocks are made from minerals. Those minerals are made up of elements. Some of these minerals have two or more elements but some minerals only have one.

Minerals

 Minerals must naturally occur; it has to be earth made to be a mineral. They are not real if a scientist makes it. Minerals are inorganic which means they are dead. Minerals are crystalline  which means their atoms are formed together to make a 3D form. Minerals are solid which means they stay stable at room temperature. Many minerals have only two elements like salt .

Mining 

Mining  can be very dangerous like in 2010  lots of people got stuck in a mine but they all got out safely . There are three different mining methods: the first is underground mining.underground mining when they mine precious metals like gold ,silver and platinum. underground mining is very expensive so they have to get great value. Surface mining is the second major type of mining; it is less expensive and often base metals and minerals can be extracted from the surface. The third is placer mining often metals can be separated from sediment in rivers  or streams .There is a tool called the slooce trap that saves valuable  material and separates it from sediment .