Archaeological studies suggest that the use of rocks as tools may date back more than 2.58 million years by individuals of the Homo genus (Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia: Braun et al., 2019), and possibly even over 3.3 million years by hominins (West Turkana, Kenya: Harmand et al., 2015; though this dating is debated: Archer et al., 2020).
These dates far predate the appearance of our own species Homo sapiens, and future research may push these origins even further back in time. Such findings might also reveal that animal species more distantly related to humans were capable of using rocks in similar ways.
However, Homo sapiens has demonstrated throughout its history a remarkable ability to select and utilize the mineral world for its own development.
From rock (building stones, road asphalt, etc.), to minerals (diamond-tipped saws, graphite pencils, sapphire jewelry, etc.), to the atomic level (phosphorus in matches, lithium batteries, etc.), the search for elements useful to humans has grown more complex in parallel with technological advancement.

The growing demand for rarer and/or more difficult-to-extract resources requires a deeper understanding of Earth and how it works. The following terms are defined to support this need: (adapted from Foucault & Raoult, 2010, and Michel, 2016) :

Glossary of Key Terms

Quarry – An artificial excavation, usually open-air, made for extracting rock material (limestone, granite, sand, etc.). Quarries are used for construction, decoration, riprap, and the production of aggregates, cement, plaster, terracotta, ochres, etc.

Deposit – [From the defective verb gésir, Latin jacere, “to lie”] – A location where a particular substance or object is naturally found (e.g., oil, mineral, metal, coal, fossil).

Ore – [From “mine”] – A rock formation containing useful substances in sufficient concentration to justify economic extraction.

Mine – [Of Celtic origin] – A site where useful substances (excluding basic rock materials) are extracted—such as copper, coal, salt, or uranium—either through open-pit mining or underground shafts and tunnels.

Reserve – The volume, concentration, and quality of a substance of economic interest (rock, water, oil, mineral, etc.) that can be profitably extracted under current technical and economic conditions.

Reservoir – A rock formation that is sufficiently porous and permeable to contain fluids (water, oil, gas, etc.). To function as a reservoir, the rock must be capped by impermeable layers that prevent fluid escape.

Resource – The volume, concentration, and quality of a substance of interest (rock, water, oil, mineral, etc.) with reasonably profitable extraction potential under foreseeable economic conditions.