Yours, mines and ores

A mineral — a gold chain, a diamond ring, wires of copper, boxes of tin, steel forks, a silver spoon — is a magnificent thing. Over 296 minerals are actually older than our Earth, formed from crystals of carbon making the universe’s first stars. The dust of meteorites, the pebbles of planets, minerals were mixed and remixed by the heat of an intense young sun, stellar ignition 4.6 billion years ago producing silicates, alloys, sulphides, phosphides and crystallines much older than us six-million-year-old human beings. Interestingly, while minerals developed on other astral bodies too, Earth holds the most kinds — our planet’s unique equation of life, where water meets biomass, meant more and more combinations of mineral forms, sinking and emerging from Earth’s surface. A mineral is thus a many-splendoured thing — a diamond could have originated as old stars sighed and cooled, within meteorite impacts or under high pressure inside Earth. Perhaps that’s why humans, whose own development is characterised by the stages of minerals they used, as tools and weapons, cosmetics and crowns, in streets and houses, pipes and phones, remain fascinated by minerals — in them lie the origins of life.

However, as humanity’s interest in minerals deepened, its baser instincts also emerged. Once, Sparta, Athens and Rome chased minerals in galleries and shafts — the power of these resources, miraculous energy when processed, deadly durability as arms, symbolic strength when worn, spurred nations to seek them. Explorers travelled chasing mineral wealth — their explorations then fastened an imperial chokehold on locations having this. Modernity — for just a few — started with minerals. Historians posit resources from the ‘New World’ financed the Renaissance — and growth — of the Old World, intensifying its ability to conquer more lands and people, including those with the first right to minerals found in their own terrain.

This inequality continues today, with the terrible impacts of mineral extraction — from the losses of miners’ lives in perilous pits to hazardous chemical exposure, acidified water, toxic air — spread unequally across Earth. These injustices could even spill into the urgent energy transition needed from polluting to renewable power. Extracting the minerals critical for this — lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel — involves massive environmental damage. However, there are solutions — as Times Evoke’s global experts emphasise, knowledge is key. To use minerals sustainably, we must know their history, which is planetary — as well as of social triumph and tragedy. We need wiser usage, preferring lab-grown gems, ensuring better recycling and seeking practices like low-carbon electricity for extractions. All that glitters indeed isn’t gold. Join Times Evoke in discovering minerals — they hold portents, yours, mine and ores.
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