METALLURGY

Commercially important ores of iron, copper, lead, magnesium, aluminium, tin and silver. Carbon reduction process (iron and tin), Self reduction process (copper and lead), Electrolytic reduction process (magnesium and aluminium), Cyanide process (silver and gold).

Introduction
The earths crust is the main source of metals. The occurrence of metal in native or in combined state in the earths crust along with a number of rocky and other impurities depends upon the chemical nature of metals. Metals having less electropositive character have less affinity for oxygen, moisture and occur in free or metallic or native state i.e., in uncombined state e.g. Au, Pt , Ag etc. On the other hand metals with higher electropositive character occurs in combined state i.e., as compounds. The compound of a metal found in nature is called a mineral. A mineral may be a single compound or a complex mixture. Those minerals from which metal can be economically extracted are called ores. Thus all ores are minerals but all minerals are not ores. For e.g. copper occurs in nature in the form of several minerals like Cu2O, Cu2S, CuFeS2, but copper pyrites is considered as the most economical mineral for the extraction of the metal. Hence copper pyrites is the chief ore of copper. Ores may be divided into four groups: i) Native Ores: These ores contain the metal in free state eg. Silver gold etc. These are usually formed in the company of rock or alluvial impurities like clay, sand etc.

ii) Oxidised Ores: These ores consist of oxides or oxysalts (eg. carbonates, phosphates, nitrates, sulphates, silicates etc.) of metal. The important oxide ores include, Fe2O3, Al2O3.2H2O etc. and important cabonate ores are limestone (CaCO3), Calamine (ZnCO3) etc. iii) Sulphurised Ores: These ores consist of sulfides of metals like iron, lead, mercury etc. Examples are iron pyrites (FeS2). galena (PbS), Cinnabar (HgS) iv) Halide ores: Examples include horn silver (AgCl), fluorspar (CaF2) etc.

Metallurgy
It is the process of extracting a metal from its ores. The following operations are carried out for obtaining the metal in the pure form. i) Crushing the ore

ii) Dressing or concentration of the ore. iii) Working up of the concentrated ore v) Purification or refining of the metal.

Various Metallurgical Process

Crushing and Grinding: The big stones of ore are first crushed into small pieces in gyratory crushers and then ground to powder form. The process of grinder crushed ore into fine powder is known as pulverization. Concentration / Dressing of Ore: Presence of earthy matter, sand limestone etc in the ores are called gangue or matrix. The removal of these impurities from ores is known as oredressing or ore-concentration. Process used to concentrate an ore is known as beneficiation process. Concentration can be carried out in one of the following ways depending on the nature of metal. a) Hand-picking: The impurities which are distinguishable to naked eye can be easily separated by hand-picking. b) Levigation or Gravity separation: This method of concentrating the ore is based on the difference in densities of the ore particles and impurities. Generally oxide and carbonate ores are concentrated by this method. c) Magnetic concentration: This method is adopted when either the ore or the impurities are magnetic in nature. The two can be separated from each other by means of magnetic separators. By this method chromite ( an ore of chromium) being magnetic can be separated from the siliceous impurity. Similarly SnO2( non magnetic) and (TiO2) magnetic can be separated. d) Froth Floatation Process: This process is mainly suitable for sulfide ores. The process is based on the different wetting characteristics of the ore and gangue particles with water and oil. The former is preferentially wetted by oil and the later by water. In certain cases other chemical compounds are also added during the process. These reagent act either as collectors, activators or depressants e.g. of collectors is ethyl xanthate, that of activators is copper sulfate while that of depressant is sodium cyanide. e) Electrostatic concentration: This method is based upon the fact that the particles which are good conductors of electricity becomes electrically charged under the influence of an electrostatic field and are thus repelled by the electrode carrying the like charge. This is used to separate lead sulfide and zinc sulfide which are found together in nature. f) Chemical Method: This process is done in cases where the ore is required in a very pure form Eg. in the concentration of bauxite containing ferric oxides, TiO2 and silica as impurities.