Mineral industry of Europe

rdf:langString Mineral industry of Europe

rdf:langString The European mining industry has a long tradition. Although the continent's mining earns for a small share of GDP, it provides a large and significant share of the world-wide production. Before World War II, the economy of Europe remained largely on coal as its source as primary energy, with very little of the diversification into oil and gas that has already occurred on United States. The mining and quarrying industry which extracts these minerals is very important to industrial, social and technological process in the European Union. Industrial minerals such as barytes, kaolinite, or salt are extracted within the European Union to supply a wide range of industries. Europe's mining industry had a long, profitable history, dating as far back as 8000 years ago in eastern Europe, and mining copper as far back as early in eastern Europe and Spain. In Ancient Rome, mining for gold and copper in Spain, Cyprus and eastern Europe and tin in Cornwall were important. Dating back to as far as the Neolithic, every kinds of mineral rocks were mined in all parts of Europe. Underground mining required significantly more energy than surface operations because of the need for ventilation, pumps and the longer haulage distances involved. Coal, which was a fuel source for the world's largest economies that lasted over a century is now decreasing drastically to renewables and due to this, the United Kingdom went 55 hours without coal in favor of clean powers like windmills. The UK was one of the earliest adopters of renewable energy and it has by far the most windmills installed than other countries in the world. The continent itself is rich in natural resources, and minerals, which are mined for usage in every-day life such as construction materials for infrastructure, building, roads, production of steel, cars, computers, medicines and fertilisers. Of those, Sweden is one of the European Union's leading ore and metal-producing countries and the Swedish mining industry is in a period of strong growth. An expanding Swedish mining industry would also contribute to greater self-sufficiency in the European Union, which was a priority in the ''Raw Materials Initiative — meeting our critical need for growth and jobs in Europe'', presented by the European Commission in 2008 and 2010. By 2020, resource mines in the European Union can possibly become diversified.