ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Mineral processing

Mineral processing is like playing with sand and toys. Think about when you go to the beach and you have a bucket filled with sand. You can shake the bucket to make the big and small sand particles separate. Mineral processing is kinda like that, but instead of sand, we have different kinds of rocks that we want to separate.

So, let's say we have a bucket of rocks with different shapes, colors, and sizes. We want to get the useful bits out of it and leave behind the not-so-useful bits. We can use some tools and techniques to do that.

First, we can crush the rocks into smaller pieces, like breaking a cookie into crumbs. This makes it easier to separate the valuable bits from the not-so-valuable bits. Then we can use things like magnets or water to separate them further.

Some rocks might be heavier than others, so we can use machines that shake the rocks up and down. This makes the heavier rocks settle at the bottom, and we can collect them separately. It's like playing with a snow globe, but instead of snow, we have rocks bouncing around.

Lastly, we might need to use chemicals to make some of the valuable bits stick together, so we can collect them all in one place. It's like using glue to stick all the Lego blocks together.

Overall, mineral processing is like a giant game of sorting rocks into different piles of useful and not-so-useful bits to make things like medicine, jewelry, and buildings. It's a fun way to turn something ordinary like rocks into something special and useful.