MINERALS

A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical

substance formed through biogeochemical
processes, having characteristic chemical
composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and
specific physical properties.
By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals
and/or mineraloids and does not have a specific
chemical composition.
Minerals range in composition from pure elements
and simple salts to very complex silicates with
thousands of known forms

Minerall naturally occurring inorganic compound

of one or more metals in association with non
metals such as oxygen, sulfur and halogens
Mineral has fixed composition and well defined
physical and chemical properties
Ore naturally occurring aggregate or combination
of minerals from which one or metals may be
economically extracted
Scientific methods are necessary for accurate
location and quantitative estimation of mineral
deposits

Economy of extraction depends on

1. Percentage of valuable metal in the ore
2. Form in which the metal occurs or nature of
mineral in the ore
3. Percentage of impurities in the ore
4. Physical condition of the ore
5. Location and magnitude of ore deposits
6. Proximity to transport facilities
7. Market value of the metal


Principal methods in mineral exploration- magnetic,

electrical, and electromagnetic properties of the
ore bodies.
Magnetic Methods:
Methods: based on fact magnetic ore
deposits disturb earths magnetic field in vicinity
 Magnetometers and variometers capable of
detecting buried deposits of magnetite(iron ore)
and nickel, cobalt ores
 Magnetic survey by instruments yield contour maps
of ore deposits


By measuring variations in magnetic intensities in

both vertical and horizontal directions dimensions
of ore body can be estimated
Electrical Methods:
Methods based on difference between
electrical conductivities of certain ore deposits and
surrounding rocks

Conductivity measurements directly indicate
both the presence and magnitude of ore deposits

Electrical flow lines obtained by passing direct or
alternating current into the ground between a pair
of earthed electrodes


Electric flow lines crowd in towards mass of

conducting material
 Conductivity measurements supplemented by
measurement of potentials at the ground surface
 Equi-potential lines perpendicular to lines
indicating flow of current and diverge from the ore
body
Electromagnetic methods: data on position and
shape of electrically conducting ore bodies
gathered by sending electromagnetic waves
 secondary field reradiated by conducting ore
bodies are recorded


Electromagnetic methods applicable even in

mountainous regions, deserts, snow-laden area,
ice-covered lakes and non conducting surface rock
strata
Gravitational methods:
methods depend on detecting
variations in gravitational forces due to variation in
densities of rocks
 Variation in gravitational fields can be detected by
sensitive pendulum
Seismic methods: depend on density and elasticity of
rock strata, determine the speed with which
artificial earthquake waves travel through rocks


Presence of radioactive ore body can be detected

by a Geiger counter which also measures
radioactivity

Types of Ores
 Simple Ores contain small quantities of gangue
materials
 Can be concentrated by simple methods-gravity
methods, magnetic separation or flotation

Ferruginous ores- contain iron minerals which can

be removed by magnetizing reduction roasting
followed by magnetic separation
Garnetiferrous Ores- contain garnets and quartz as
chief gangue minerals and can be extracted by
electrostatic separation or flotation
Complex ores-contain different types of gangue
minerals in association with manganese minerals
and complex treatment required for extraction

Source of Minerals
 Three main sources of metals and their
compounds-earths crust, the sea and scrap metal
 In future, metals could be extracted by cultivating
specific marine organisms
 These organisms would concentrate one or more
elements within their body by inherent biological
activity
 Scrap metal becoming increasingly important and
freely available source of metal

There is tremendous amount of oxygen and silicon

in earths crust.
Usage of elements does not conform to their
abundance
Elements that are abundant in earths crust but
have limited use- titanium, rubidium and vanadium
Elements such as copper, zinc and lead which are
less abundant find numerous applications in daily
life
Rich ore deposits, ex. Bauxite ores of Kashmir are
located with poor transportation facilities

A process for extraction of ores that is both simple

and economical should be available before large
scale projects can be initiated
At present there is no simple method for extraction
of titanium from its ores.
If metal has useful and attractive propertiesphysical and chemical-demand for it would be high
justifying large scale production
Trillions of nodules are scattered across the ocean
floor

Principal constituents-manganese, nickel, iron,

cobalt and silicon.
Process that leads to formation of nodules is rather
complicated and yet to be established
Manganese nodule deposits lying below 300 m can
be economically mined

Mineral Resources of India

 Minerals containing aluminium, berylium,
chromium, magnesium, titanium are adequate to
abundant
 Minerals containing copper, gold, carbon(graphite),
lead, vanadium, zinc, nickel, cadmium, uranium
and tin are inadequate
 Minerals containing antimony, bismuth, boron,
cobalt, mercury, molybdenum, phosphorous,
sulphur, silver and tungsten are poor or not known




Bauxite is widely distributed in India from which

aluminium can be extracted
Chromite depsoits of India are located in Bihar,
Karnataka and Maharashtra
Cadmium is recovered as byproduct from zinc
smelters at Rajasthan, Visakhapatnam and Kerala
India gold reserves located in Karnataka
India is third largest producer of manganese, first
is USSR and second South Africa

India has extensive deposits of magnesium in form

of magnesite in Tamil Nadu.
Heavy rare-earth mineral sand deposits are found
along coasts of Kerala
India possesses the worlds richest and most
extensive resources of thorium in the form of
monazite deposits along coast of Kerala

Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main

use is to produce a metal from its ore.
This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and
copper extraction and other base metals from their
ores.
Smelting uses heat and a chemical reducing agent
to change the oxidation state of the metal ore;
the reducing agent is commonly a source of carbon
such as coke, or in earlier times charcoal. The
carbon or carbon monoxide derived from it
removes oxygen from the ore to leave the metal




The carbon is thus oxidized in two stages,

producing first carbon monoxide and then carbon
dioxide.
As most ores are impure, it is often necessary to
use flux, such as limestone, to remove the
accompanying rock gangue as slag.
Plants for the electrolytic reduction of aluminium
are also generally referred to as smelters
a flux is a chemical cleaning agent, flowing agent,
or purifying agent. Fluxes may have more than one
function at a time. They are used in both extractive
metallurgy and metal joining

Some of the earliest known fluxes were carbonate of

soda, potash, charcoal, coke, borax, lime, lead sulfide
and certain minerals containing phosphorus
These agents served various functions, the simplest
being a reducing agent which prevented oxides from
forming on the surface of the molten metal
Others absorbed impurities into the slag which could
be scraped off the molten metal
Slag is a partially vitreous by-product of smelting ore to
separate the metal fraction from the unwanted
fraction. It can usually be considered to be a mixture of
metal oxides and silicon dioxide

slags can contain metal sulfides and metal atoms

in the elemental form.
While slags are generally used as a waste removal
mechanism in metal smelting,
they can also serve other purposes, such as
assisting in the temperature control of the
smelting;
and also minimizing any re-oxidation of the final
liquid metal product before the molten metal is
removed from the furnace and used to make solid
metal.

Reference Text Books

1.Wills Mineral Processing Technology-Elsevier
2. Chemical Metallurgy-Chiranjit Kumar Gupta
3. Extraction of non ferrous metals- H.S.Ray, Sridhar
and Abraham