Definition of ‘Mine’ too restrictive?

[gregfowlerphd]

According to the definition, to be a mine, a facility must be designed to support the extraction of valuable minerals and geological materials from the earth. This immediately raises the question: Are minerals themselves considered to be geological materials?

If not, the definition may be too restrictive, since it would not count a facility that is designed to support only the extraction of valuable minerals (and not also of geological materials) as a mine. In that case, perhaps the ‘and’ should be changed to ‘and/or’.

If so, then perhaps ‘valuable minerals and geological materials’ should be changed to ‘geological materials, such as valuable minerals’ or ‘valuable minerals and/or other geological materials’.

Additionally, I worry about the presence of ‘valuable’ and ‘which forms the mineralized package of economic interest to the miner’. Presumably, one could (for example) set up a practice mine that is not intended to extract anything valuable or of any economic interest.