Cookie Mining Lab The purpose of this activity is to simulate a mining operation. In order to make the simulation economically valid, many of the costs associated with real mining operations will be considered. Several of the economic considerations in this simulation follow: A land area will be purchased from the bank. The land area will be surveyed and quantified. Mining equipment will be rented. A mining operation will be undertaken, with the cost for each minute of the mining operation. included in the total operating costs. At the conclusion of mining operations, the reclamation of the land area is required, with a fine assessed for any part of the land area that is not successfully reclaimed. The ore that was mined will be sold back to the bank to offset the start-up costs of the mining operation. The definition of "ore" is a naturally occurring material from which minerals of economic value can be extracted at a profit. In this exercise, the chocolate chip is the ore. The worthless rock that is associated with the ore and must be separated from the ore is the "gangue." (The rest of the cookie is the gangue.) While the goal of this