A mining community is found where there are sufficient resources to be mined such as metallic minerals, non-metallic minerals, fuel minerals or precious stones. In some mining communities, the mined mineral resources are also refined, or made into products. Although there are different methods of mining mineral substances such as underground mining and open-pit or surface mining, all mining communities need different kinds of transportation, power, water and many workers. More permanent mining communities need many of the same things as other kinds of communities.

Teacher's resources available on CDROM include an activity workbook (PDF); a photo gallery for easy browsing of the bundled photos for this series (PDF) ; a folder of photos for use in student projects (JPEG) ; sample worksheets for students projects (Microsoft Word format). Included resource CDROM instructions.

Introduction -- What is mining? -- Kinds of mining communities? -- Mining communities need people -- Other needs of mining communities -- Summary.