Mining is a much more significant part of life than most people suppose. There’s an old saying “if it isn’t grown, it’s mined.” Think that one through with as many examples as you can and you’ll realize that aside from wood and food, we mine virtually everything: salt, metals, all the gravel for roads, rare earth elements, gases like helium, all petroleum products namely plastics, etc etc it goes on and on.
Yet there are still people in the world that think “It’s 2023 - why haven’t we done away with mines?”