Material

Separating metals from their ores

Production What is an ore?

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

In separating metals
from their ores, the
reactants are the
metals and the ore
itself.

Concentrating the ore

This simply means getting rid of as much of the
unwanted rocky material as possible before the
ore is converted into the metal. In some cases this
is done chemically. For example, pure aluminum
oxide is obtained from bauxite by a process
involving a reaction with sodium hydroxide
solution. This is described in detail on the
aluminum page in this section.

The methodused to extract

metalsfrom the ore in which they are
found depends on their reactivity.

Carbon reduction
Carbon (as coke or
charcoal) is cheap. It
not only acts as a
reducing agent, but it
also acts as the fuel to
provide heat for the
process.

Carbon may also be

left in the metal as an
impurity. Sometimes
this can be removed
afterwards (for
example, in the
extraction of iron);
sometimes it can't (for
example in producing
titanium), and a Electrolysis
different method
would have to be used This is a common
in cases like this. extraction process for
the more reactive You
may also come across it
in other cases such as
one method of
extracting copper and
in the purification of
copper.

During electrolysis,
electrons are being
added directly to the
metal ions at the
cathode (the negative
electrode).
The downside
(particularly in the
aluminum case) is the
cost of the electricity.
An advantage is that it
can produce very pure
metals.
After either one of two processes are
done, the final product is the pure metal
extracted from the ore.

Environmental effects are usually based on

damage caused by extracting the metal (eg
mining for the ore, spoil heaps, toxic solutions
leaching away after processing), depletion of the
Earth's resources, unusable waste after the
metal has been used.

Although both processes are needed to

produce the needed materials for us to
progress, the effect it has on the
environment should be changed.
Scientists should look for other ways to
lessen environmental degradation from
material production.
 http://
www.chemguide.co.uk/
inorganic/extraction
/introduction.html

http://
www.bbc.co.uk/school
s/gcsebitesize/scien
ce/aqa_pre_2011/rock
s/metalsrev1.shtml
http://
www.chemguide.co.uk/
introduction.html

https://
revisionworld.com/di
scussionrooms/chemis
try/what-are-social-
economic-and-environ
mental-impacts-use-a
nd-extraction-metals