Aluminum pots and stainless steel kitchen utensils . Many materials that are not in themselves minerals could not be made without them. We use sand, selenium, silicon, soda ash, and other minerals to manufacture glass. Making paper may require clay, lime, or sodium sulfate. Minerals like titanium, lead, and cadmium help give paints their color, white talc, mica, and clay help them last longer.
Minerals actually make possible the manufacture of almost every product bought and sold today.
The machines used in factories, plants, mills, and refineries are made from steel and other metals. The processes involved in refining petroleum, making steel, and producing textiles, paper, glass, plastics, and fertilizers depend on chemicals made from minerals. If we want to move people and materials, we need minerals. Cars, for example, contain iron and steel, manganese, chromium, lead, zinc, platinum, copper, and aluminum. We drive them on streets, highways, and bridges made from asphalt, sand, gravel, and concrete.