Riches in Alberta's Rocks and Minerals
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Rocks and minerals are fundamental to Alberta's economy. In some parts of the world, people have used rocks and minerals for weapons, tools and adornment for over a million years, and in Alberta, stone artifacts have been
discovered that are over 11,000 years old. The demand for rock and mineral resources is greater today than ever before; they are necessary to maintain our highly advanced and technological civilization. Alberta is underlain by thousands of
metres of rocks which hold many valuable resources and, in fact, the resource production in this province is more than half of Canada's total production. The vast majority of Alberta's mineral industry consists of energy resources, or fossil
fuels, including coal, oil, gas, and gas byproducts, such as sulphur. The province is also a significant producer of cement, sand and gravel, lime, salt, and gold. Therefore, the study of rocks is more than an academic pursuit, and Alberta has
justifiably earned the title of "Canada's energy province".