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What Is Involved in Processing Raw Materials?

M. Kayo
M. Kayo

The processing of raw materials involves taking substances or resources from the earth and converting them into products that are useful to humankind. For example, crude oil is a raw material extracted from deep within the earth, processed into various fuels, oils, plastics, and other chemicals used to produce many different products. Throughout history, humans have been able to take raw materials from the earth and make useful items. Some methods used in processing raw materials may require a great deal of effort and financial investment while others may require simpler, less costly methods. Techniques used in processing raw materials are determined by the type of material and the type of end product required.

Raw materials consist of substances that can be mined, harvested, collected, or otherwise taken from the earth. There are many types of raw materials including lumber, metal ores, grain, cotton, and crude oil. These raw materials are put through a process and changed into one or more different forms. Raw material changed into these altered forms may then be easily transported, stored, and used to create finished goods or parts. Humans have been processing raw materials during their entire history, but today, the methods used to make everything from basic cotton fabric to the tempered steel used in the International Space Station have become much more complex.

Raw deposits or materials such as iron ore require processing.
Raw deposits or materials such as iron ore require processing.

Processing of raw materials into products may require a great deal of money. For example, gold is a raw material that must sometimes be extracted from solid rock. Processing raw materials like gold by hand is difficult, slow, and not likely to be profitable, however, a more profitable means of mining gold involves expensive machinery, explosives, and the efforts of many workers. Not all methods used in the processing of raw materials are expensive. For example, processing raw cotton into finished cotton cloth is relatively inexpensive and only requires some basic manual labor, a spinning wheel, and a loom.

A spinning wheel is one of the tools required to process raw cotton into finished cotton.
A spinning wheel is one of the tools required to process raw cotton into finished cotton.

The methods and techniques used in processing raw materials depend entirely upon the finished product desired. The processes used for each type of raw material often involve transformation of that material into another form that has a useful purpose. The process used in converting raw metals like iron ore into steel involves beneficiation, or crushing and separation, and smelting, the process of heating the ore to obtain the pure metal. Processing of raw materials like trees may involve an entirely different process. For example, when trees are harvested, the wood is cut into logs, shipped to a sawmill, cut into more easily transported sizes, seasoned, formed into other products like plywood or chip board, and finally used to create finished products like homes, furniture, or guitars.

Discussion Comments

Vincenzo

@Logicfest -- that is not always the case. Take the timber industry, for example. That is still booming in the United States, partially due to the fact that so much money has been invested in growing and maintaining forests for harvest and partially because of the high costs involved in transporting lumber (often, the margins are too low to spend the extra cash on transportation involved in shipping things to the United States from overseas).

Regardless, we are seeing a shift. Such operations used to set up near both markets for processed goods and sources of raw materials. that has changed substantially over the past few decades as we've made the switch from a bunch of local economies to one that is global.

That shift has been a bit painful in areas where labor is expensive, but one can still hope things will settle in one day and both labor and businesses learn to adapt to a fundamental, economic change.

Logicfest

One topic that is increasingly getting attention when it comes to processing raw materials is the labor costs involved. For example, there used to be a lot of bauxite mined and processed into aluminum in the United States. A lot of those operations have moved overseas where bauxite deposits are plentiful and labor is inexpensive.

Workers complain that such moves cost jobs in the United States while to companies outsourcing those operations claim they must do that because of the money they save. Meanwhile, look at an area where raw materials harvesting and processing has left and you will see a very negative effect on that local economy as a result.

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    • Raw deposits or materials such as iron ore require processing.
      By: siimsepp
      Raw deposits or materials such as iron ore require processing.
    • A spinning wheel is one of the tools required to process raw cotton into finished cotton.
      By: michael hampel
      A spinning wheel is one of the tools required to process raw cotton into finished cotton.
    • Tempered steel was used to manufacture the International Space Station.
      By: Global Panorama
      Tempered steel was used to manufacture the International Space Station.
    • Many raw materials need to be mined from the earth in some way.
      By: io
      Many raw materials need to be mined from the earth in some way.