the.com/ore
the rock that didn't know it was rich until we dug deeper
means Naturally occurring rock or mineral from which a valuable metal can be profitably extracted.
from From Old English ōra, 'unwrought metal, ore,' which tangled early on with ār, 'brass, copper, bronze' — a relative of Latin aes, the metal-money word. The two senses, the raw rock and the worked metal, sat close enough that English fused them into a single gleaming term for the stuff worth digging up.
- origin
- forged in dying stars before Earth existed
- grade game
- profitable ore can be under one percent metal
- banded iron
- oldest deposits formed when oceans first held oxygen
- asteroid bait
- one metal asteroid could supply Earth for centuries
for instance
itabira iron ore — brazilian mine that inspired carlos drummond de andrade's famous poem about ore extraction
kiruna iron ore mine — swedish underground mine, world's largest iron ore mine by volume
pilbara iron ore — australian region supplying ~40% of world's seaborne iron ore