METALS

KEY WORDS
Minerals:
• naturally occurring inorganic solids with crystalline structure
• metal is present in free state or combined state
• have a definite range of chemical formula

Ores:
• Mineral containing large quantity of a metal, such that the metal can be
extracted profitably and commercially e.g. Bauxite, Hematite, Argentite.
• Therefore, all the ores are minerals but all minerals are not ores.
ORES OF DIFFERENT METALS
(10B)
1) Aluminium

Bauxite Al2O3.2H2O (Principal ore: 40-

60%)
Feldspar KAlSi3O8
Cryolite Na3AlF6
Corundum Al2O3 (10G)

2) Iron

Haematite Fe2O3 (Principal ore: 75%)

Magnetite Fe3O4
Siderite FeCO3
Limonite Fe2O3.3H2O
Iron pyrite FeS2 (10C)
3) Copper

Chalcopyrite or CuFeS2 (Principal

Copper pyrite ore: 34.5%)

Chalcocite or copper Cu2S

glance
Cuprite or Ruby copper Cu2O
Malachite CuCO3 .Cu(OH)2
Azurite 2CuCO3 .Cu(OH)2

4) Silver

Argentite or silver Ag2S (Principal ore:

glance 87%)

Horn silver AgCl

Pyrolite or ruby silver Ag2S.Sb2S3
Silver Copper Glance Ag(Cu2)2S (10D)
5) Gold

Calverite (AuTe2)

Alluvial sand or quartz veins

Reef gold (10A)

 Mining:
process of extracting useful substances and minerals from the eart’s crust

 Metallurgy:
• the science which deals about the properties, extraction and purification of
metals
• Includes the stepwise process of extraction of metals from their respective ores.
GENERAL STEPS/PRINCIPLE OF
EXTRACTION OF METALS
1) Crushing & Grinding:
• Ores are found as big stones which are converted into small pieces by
using mechanical crushing machines e.g. jaw crushers.
• The crushed ores is converted into fine powder by ball mills or stamp mill
which is known as Pulverization.
2) Concentration:
• The grounded or crushed ores contain
impurities like mud, sand, rocks which is known as
Gangue.
• The process of removing impurities from the
Ores thereby increasing the percentage of
metals in them is called Concentration. (10E)It is also called dressing or
enrichment of the ore.
• Different methods of concentration of ores: (10B)
a) Hand picking: It is done when the impurities are different & large in
size
b) Gravity separation or Hydraulic washing:
• It is applied if the ores are heavier than impurities.
• Pulverized ore is washed with a steam of running
water.
• Heavy ore particles settle down and lighter
gangue particles are washed away.
c) Electromagnetic separation method:
• Suitable when ore is non magnetic and impurities are magnetic or vice
versa
• Pulverized ore is placed on a conveyor belt rotating over a magnetic roller
• Magnetic particles are attracted by the magnetic roller and thus fall
nearer to the roller while non magnetic particles fall away and form
another heap.
d) Froth floatation process:
• Is applied if ore is more wetted by a particular solvent such as pine oil
than the gangue particles.
• Pulverized ore is mixed with more water & little pine oil in a big tank &
current of compressed air passes through a rotating agitator that
produces froth.
• Ore particles are preferentially wetted by oil and floats over water as
froth.
• Gangue particles remain dissolved in water layer.
• Applied especially to sulphide ores, such as galena (PbS), copper pyrite
(CuFeS2)(10F/G)
3) OXIDATION (Calcination &
roasting)
• The concentrated ore is heated below its melting point usually in a
reverberatory furnace.
• The main purpose is to convert the sulphide or carbonate ores into their
oxides
& to remove volatile impurities.
• Heating is done without
supplying air or with sufficient
supply of air depending the
nature of ore and impurities.
Roasting:
• Process of heating concentrated ore below its M.P with sufficient supply
of air is called roasting.
• Carried out for sulphide ores as they require oxygen to be converted into
the metal oxide.
e.g. Zinc blende (ZnS) requires roasting.
2 ZnS +3O2 → 2ZnO + 2SO2
2 Cu2S +3O2 → 2Cu2O + 2SO2
 Calcination :
• Process of heating concentrated ore below its M.P in absence or
with limited supply of air is called calcination.
• Carried out for oxide or hydroxide or carbonate ores as they
don’t require additional supply of oxygen to be converted into the
metal oxide.
ZnCO3 → ZnO + CO2
• Volatile impurities are oxidized & moisture are removed.
S +O2 → SO2
4P+O2 → 2P2 O5
2Fe2 O3. 3H2 O → 2Fe2 O3 + 3H2 O

After roasting & calcination,

• Ores become porous and this makes further process effective.
• Organic matter & moisture/water is removed.
• Sulphides & Carbonates are converted to metal oxides.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ROASTING &
CALCINATION

Roasting Calcination

Carried out by heating of a metal ore with Carried out by heating of a metal ore in
sufficient supply of air. absence or limited supply of air.

Is done for sulphide ores. Is done for carbonate ores

SO2 is released and metal oxide is obtained. CO2 is released and metal oxide is obtained.
4) REDUCTION
• It is the process of removing oxygen from metal oxide.
• Reducing agents like C, CO, Hydrogen remove oxygen from the metal
oxides.
• ZnO is reduced by C only , Silver oxide and HgO by heating oxides of
reactive metals like Na, K , Ca , Mg ,Al by the electrolysis method.(10G)
SMELTING:
• It is the process of heating calcined or roasted ore(oxide form) with
suitable reducing agent such as coke at high temperature, to get metal in
molten state.
• Roasted or calcined ore is mixed with coke (C) and heated in a furnace
e.g blast furnace.
• Coke burns producing CO at high temperature.
2C + O2 → 2CO + Heat
• At high temperature, metallic oxide gets reduced
to metal by carbon & CO gas produced. The contact
between CO(gas) & ore(solid) is more effective than
the contact between two solids (coke & ore). Hence,
reduction of ore takes place mostly by CO.
ZnO + C → Zn + CO
ZnO + CO → Zn + CO2 (more effective) (10A)
• Calcined or roasted ore usually contains impurities with
very high melting point known as refractory impurities which
degrade the quality of metal.
• A suitable material called flux is added durng smelting to
remove refractory impurities during smelting. Flux reacts
with infusible impurities to give fusible mass called slag.
e.g in extraction of Copper,
FeO (impurity) + SiO2 (flux) → FeSiO3 (slag)
5. REFINING/PURIFICATION
• Metals obtained by smelting contain smaller amount of impurities & are
called crude metals.
• To obtain metals in pure state, refining is done by various processes like
distillation, electro refining. (10B)
a) Distillation:
• The impurities present in the metals are removed by boiling.
• done when either metals or impurities would change into vapour when
heated.
• used for the purification of metals with low boiling point & gets vaporized
e.g. mercury. (10D)
b) Electro-refining:
• The electrolysis process is used.
• Used to obtain metals like iron, silver, copper,
gold in pure state(~99%).
• A voltameter (vessel to perform electrolysis) is
taken & impure metal is made anode i.e
connected to the positive terminal of cell while
the pure metal is made cathode i.e connected
to the negative terminal of cell.
• A salt of the metal to be refined is used as an electrolyte. E.g. For electro-refining Cu,
CuSO4 is taken as electrolyte. When current is passed through the electrolyte,
Cu gets dissolved from anode and gets deposited at cathode in the pure form.
• Impurities like Ag, Au, Pt remain as anode mud/sludge & Fe, Zn as impurities,
remain in solution. (10G)
• At anode: Cu(s)→Cu++ (aq)+2e-
• At cathode: Cu++ (aq)+2e- → Cu(s) (10E/A/C/G/F)