Sancho's Extraction of Metals Chemistry Lesson Notes For Ordinary Level

EXTRACTION OF METALS CHEMISTRY LESSON NOTES FOR ORDINARY LEVEL

OBJECTIVES OF THE TOPIC:

Many metals are found in the Earth's crust as ores. An ore is usually a compound of the

metal mixed with impurities. When the metal is dug up, a method must be used to

separate the metal from the rest of the ore. This is called extracting the metal.

Metals are naturally found in compound called ores. These metals are obtained from their

ores by a process called extraction. The branch of science concerned with the properties,

production, and purification of metals is called metallurgy.

An ore is any naturally-occurring source of a metal that you can economically extract the

metal from it. Or

Ores are referred to as a mineral that contains large proportion of a metal or a metallic

compound that has an economic value. In addition, ore is a type of rock that

contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted

through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element(s).

Ore: Is a mixture of a metal containing mineral and other materials from the surrounding

rocks, which can be described as impurities with respect to what you want from the

ore

The grade or concentration of an ore mineral, or metal, as well as its form of occurrence,

will directly affect the costs associated with mining the ore. The cost of extraction must

thus be weighted against the contained metal value of the rock to determine what ore can

be processed and what ore is of too low a grade to be worth mining. The ores must be

processed to extract the metals of interest from the waste rock and from the ore minerals.

Ore bodies are formed by a variety of geological processes. The process of ore formation

Minerals are metallic compound occur in the earth’s crust together with some impurities

such as rock particles.

Metals exist either as free elements, or in compound form. The compound can be oxides,

carbonates, sulphate or complex combining two or more of the simple compounds.