Minerals in sports may not get the spotlight, but they are essential to every game. From the materials in stadiums and fields to the alloys and composites in bats, bikes, balls, and skates, minerals shape how athletes play, how equipment performs, and how fans experience competition. Without them, the modern world of sports simply wouldn’t exist.
Minerals in Sports: Baseball and Softball
The ‘sluggers’ of maple, ash and birch wood have been replaced by lighter, more durable scandium-aluminum alloys. Scandium is found in hundreds of minerals, including pica and garnet, and rare minerals like thortveitite. It is mostly obtained as a byproduct of uranium refining. Clay composes most playing surfaces; clay-sand composites go into base paths, batter’s boxes, bullpens and pitcher’s mounds. Without minerals, there would be no night games: aluminum, copper, gases (halides, neon, sodium), glass, steel and tungsten all help light up a field before, “Play ball!”
Minerals in Cycling Equipment
Advanced alloys in frames have led to lighter, stronger bikers and cyclists going faster with less effort. Some are steel-alloyed frames. The most common are carbon fiber, titanium and aluminum. Other options include scandium or scandium-aluminum alloyed frames. Pedals are made of aluminum or magnesium, and tire composition includes carbon black, amorphous precipitated silica, sulfur and zinc oxide.
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Minerals in Bowling Equipment
In 1941, Detroit, Michigan, earned the title of Bowling Capital of the World. While fired ceramic balls are considered more powerful (because they don’t absorb energy), and the exact materials for each part of a good bowling ball are closely guarded secrets among makers, bowling balls do rely on minerals in sports, blended into the poly resin (barite, limestone, silica powder) and in the core (usually powdered metal oxides like barium, bismuth graphite or ceramic).
Minerals in Curling Stones
Yes, curling stones are stones! Most are granite, with a molded plastic handle on top affixed by a steel bolt and the bolt hole is lined with brass (copper and zinc) that may contain aluminum, lead, manganese, silicon or tin.
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Minerals in Sports: Football Gear and Fields
A high-impact sport needs protective equipment made from minerals in sports that are high-impact-resistant metals and polymers, but that’s not all. Borax, salt, chromium and sulphur go into leather for athletic shoes; molybdenum and titanium stabilize the soles, and cleats are made from zinc. Athletic fields depend on potash (fertilizer) and stadiums start with steel (iron, zinc, molybdenum), concrete (limestone, clay, gypsum), glass (silica sand, feldspar), and tile (clay, feldspar).
Minerals in Golf Equipment
Golfers at the Masters love Spruce Pine Mining District’s fine white quartz sand under their feet but when caddies hand over a golf club, it is probably a precision-machined clubhead made from titanium (named after the Titans of Greek mythology) to improve distance and control.
Minerals in Hockey Gear
Thank aluminum, titanium and graphite for hockey sticks feeling lighter than ever; masks and helmets use stainless steel made with iron, nickel and chromium; skates are made from chrome-plated carbon steel; goalposts are made of steel and aluminum. Sulphur can be found in the rubber used in hockey pucks.
Minerals in LaCrosse Gear
Canada’s national summer sport uses sticks whose shafts come from aluminum, graphite, and titanium, or alloys of magnesium, scandium, and zinc; the gum or rubber balls are made from sulfur.
Minerals in Sledding Sports
Sledding sports are built on steel, allowing luge, skeleton and bobsleigh competitors to reach speeds of more than 85 mph! Molybdenum is a key component in steel, giving it strength, while the shell (known as the cowling) is made of fiberglass. The glass woven into fiber is made from silica (quartz sand), giving these snow sports a beach ancestor!
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Minerals in Sports: Running Shoes and Apparel
Silver and copper are minerals in sports used in running apparel to kill bacteria and control odor; chrome-plated zinc is used for zippers. Aluminum is used to make reflective tape and shiny fabric to enhance visibility while running at night. Borax, salt, chromium and sulfur are used in preparing shoe leather, and soles are reinforced with molybdenum and titanium.
Minerals in Skiing and Snowboarding
Ski and snowboard bases use aluminum, titanium, carbon and boron fiber. Pole shafts use aluminum or carbon graphite. Bindings are made of steel, while weights of tungsten alloy and carbide tips on shafts help with balance. Advanced ceramics in boots have led to composites such as aluminum oxide, clay, hydroxyapatite, lead zirconate titanate, lithium, silica, silicon carbide, tin oxide, titanium dioxide, yttria-stabilized zirconia and zirconium diboride.
Minerals in Sports: Swimming Gear and Pools
Timing devices require minerals in sports like boron, copper, gold and quartz. Silicone – from methyl chloride, and silicon produced from silica (quartz sand) and carbon is used for caps and headbands, and nosepieces on goggles. And don’t forget the pool – made of concrete (limestone, clay, gypsum, aggregates) and tile (clay, feldspar).
Minerals in Tennis Equipment
Thank graphite for bringing the tennis racquet out of “the woods.” This naturally occurring crystalline carbon is highly heat-resistant yet incredibly soft. Rackets also rely on basalt fiber, sourced from volcanic basalt before becoming golden hair-like fiber shock absorbers.
US Government photo, public domain.
Minerals in Sports: Weightlifting Equipment
Weight training became part of French and German educational curricula in the 1500s, but it took 300 years for good old cast iron to become the material of choice for weight plates, and paving the way for standardized weight classes and more accurate performance measurement. Olympic weight plates are usually cast iron.
Minerals in Sports: The Real MVPs
Minerals and the metals they yield are among the real legends of their sport, beyond the gold, silver and bronze presented on podiums. Aluminum, titanium and carbon steel have revolutionized sports equipment and led to designs capable of withstanding tremendous force while remaining as light and easy to handle as if mined from Mount Olympus itself.
This story about minerals in sports equipment previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by L.A Sokolowski.
