CSET Requirement 4.1c: Identify common ore minerals as sources of copper, iron, lead, zinc, cement, halite, gypsum, and uranium.
Certain kinds of mineral can be treated for metal extraction more easily than others; these are commonly referred to as ore minerals. Quite often, different minerals containing a particular metal occur together in a deposit, and are referred to as ore forming minerals. Ore minerals form as a result of special geologic processes and often occur in isolated, small, localized rock masses. Such local concentrations are called mineral deposits. Mineral deposits are what prospectors seek. The terms ore mineral and mineral deposit were originally applied only to minerals and deposits from which metals are recovered, but present usage includes a few nonmetallic minerals, such as barite and fluorite, that are found in the same kinds of deposit as metallic minerals.
Metals used in industrial and technological applications can be divided into two classes on the basis of their abundance in the Earth's crust. The geochemically abundant metals, of which there are five (aluminum, iron, magnesium, manganese, and titanium), constitute more than 0.1 percent by weight of the Earth's crust, while the geochemically scarce metals, which embrace all other metals (including such familiar ones as copper, lead, zinc, gold, and silver), constitute less than 0.1 percent. In almost every rock, at least tiny amounts of all metals can be detected by sensitive chemical analysis. However, there are important differences in the way the abundant and scarce metals occur in common rocks. Geochemically abundant metals tend to be present as essential constituents in minerals. For example, basalt, a common igneous rock, consists largely of the minerals olivine and pyroxene (both magnesium-iron silicates), feldspar (calcium-aluminum silicate), and ilmenite (iron-titanium oxide). Careful chemical analysis of a basalt will reveal the presence of most of the geochemically scarce metals too, but no amount of searching will reveal minerals in which one or more of the scarce metals is an essential constituent.
Ore minerals
Two factors determine whether a given mineral is suitable to be an ore mineral. The first is the ease with which a mineral can be separated from the gangue and concentrated for smelting. Concentrating processes, which are based on the physical properties of the mineral, include magnetic separation, gravity separation, and flotation. The second factor is smelting--that is, releasing the metal from the other elements to which it is chemically bonded in the mineral. Smelting processes are discussed below, but of primary importance in this consideration of the suitability of an ore mineral is the amount of energy needed to break the chemical bonds and release the metal. In general, less energy is needed to smelt sulfide, oxide, or hydroxide minerals than is required to smelt a silicate mineral. For this reason, few silicate minerals are ore minerals. Because the great bulk of the Earth's crust (about 95 percent) is composed of silicate minerals, sulfide, oxide, and hydroxide ore minerals are at best only minor constituents of the Earth's crust--and in many cases they are very rare constituents.
The preferred ore minerals of both geochemically abundant and geochemically scarce metals are native metals, sulfides, oxides, hydroxides, or carbonates. In a few cases, silicate minerals have to be used as ore minerals because the metals either do not form more desirable minerals or form desirable minerals that rarely occur in large deposits
Metals used in industrial and technological applications can be divided into two classes on the basis of their abundance in the Earth's crust. The geochemically abundant metals, of which there are five (aluminum, iron, magnesium, manganese, and titanium), constitute more than 0.1 percent by weight of the Earth's crust, while the geochemically scarce metals, which embrace all other metals (including such familiar ones as copper, lead, zinc, gold, and silver), constitute less than 0.1 percent. In almost every rock, at least tiny amounts of all metals can be detected by sensitive chemical analysis. However, there are important differences in the way the abundant and scarce metals occur in common rocks. Geochemically abundant metals tend to be present as essential constituents in minerals. For example, basalt, a common igneous rock, consists largely of the minerals olivine and pyroxene (both magnesium-iron silicates), feldspar (calcium-aluminum silicate), and ilmenite (iron-titanium oxide). Careful chemical analysis of a basalt will reveal the presence of most of the geochemically scarce metals too, but no amount of searching will reveal minerals in which one or more of the scarce metals is an essential constituent.
Ore minerals
Two factors determine whether a given mineral is suitable to be an ore mineral. The first is the ease with which a mineral can be separated from the gangue and concentrated for smelting. Concentrating processes, which are based on the physical properties of the mineral, include magnetic separation, gravity separation, and flotation. The second factor is smelting--that is, releasing the metal from the other elements to which it is chemically bonded in the mineral. Smelting processes are discussed below, but of primary importance in this consideration of the suitability of an ore mineral is the amount of energy needed to break the chemical bonds and release the metal. In general, less energy is needed to smelt sulfide, oxide, or hydroxide minerals than is required to smelt a silicate mineral. For this reason, few silicate minerals are ore minerals. Because the great bulk of the Earth's crust (about 95 percent) is composed of silicate minerals, sulfide, oxide, and hydroxide ore minerals are at best only minor constituents of the Earth's crust--and in many cases they are very rare constituents.
The preferred ore minerals of both geochemically abundant and geochemically scarce metals are native metals, sulfides, oxides, hydroxides, or carbonates. In a few cases, silicate minerals have to be used as ore minerals because the metals either do not form more desirable minerals or form desirable minerals that rarely occur in large deposits