What is the importance of minerals?

Society today depends on minerals in countless ways—from the construction of skyscrapers to the manufacture of televisions. A few minerals such as talc, asbestos, and sulfur are used essentially as they come from the ground, but most are first processed to obtain a usable material such as bricks, glass, cement, plaster, and a score of metals ranging from iron to gold. Both forests and farms are dependent upon soils, which are composed chiefly of minerals. See also Asbestos; Soil; Sulfur.

Metallic ores and industrial minerals are mined on every continent, wherever specific minerals are sufficiently concentrated to be extracted economically. The location of minable metal and industrial mineral deposits, and the study of the origin, size, and ore grade of these deposits are the domain of economic geologists, but a knowledge of the chemistry, occurrence, and physical properties of minerals is basic to pursuits in economic geology.

http://www.answers.com/topic/mineral