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Mineral
Mineral :
Any naturally occurring homogeneous solid that has a definite (but not fixed)
chemical composition and a distinctive internal crystal structure.
Minerals are usually formed by inorganic processes. Synthetic equivalents of
various minerals, such as emeralds and diamonds, are manufactured for
commercial purposes. Although most minerals are chemical compounds, a small
number (e.g., sulfur, copper, gold) are elements. Minerals combine with each
other to form rocks. For example, granite consists of the minerals feldspar,
quartz, mica, and amphibole in varying amounts. Rocks are generally, therefore,
an intergrowth of various minerals.
Kind of Mineral :
Sulfide Mineral
Carbonate Mineral
Silicate Mineral
Oxide Mineral
Clay Mineral
Silica Mineral
Halide Mineral
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Sulfide Mineral :
Any member of a group of
compounds of sulfur with one or
more metals.
The metals that occur most
commonly are iron, copper, nickel,
lead, cobalt, silver, and zinc. They are
the ore minerals of most metals used
by industry (e.g., antimony, bismuth,
copper, lead, nickel, and zinc). Other
industrially important metals such as
cadmium and selenium occur in trace
amounts in numerous common
sulfides and are recovered in refining processes.
Carbonate Mineral:
2−,
Any member of a family of minerals that contains the carbonate ion, CO3
as the basic structural unit.
The carbonates are among the most widely distributed minerals in the earth's
crust; the most common are calcite, dolomite, and aragonite. Dolomite replaces
calcite in limestone; when this replacement is extensive, the rock is called
dolomite. Other relatively common carbonate minerals are siderite,
rhodochrosite, strontianite (strontium-rich); smithsonite (zinc-rich); witherite
(barium-rich); and cerussite (lead-rich).
Silicate Mineral :
Any of a large group of silicon-oxygen compounds that are widely distributed
throughout much of the solar system.
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The silicates make up about 95% of the Earth's crust and upper mantle, occurring
as the major constituents of most igneous rocks and in appreciable quantities in
sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. They also are important constituents of
lunar samples, meteorites, and most asteroids. In addition, planetary probes have
detected them on the surfaces of Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Of the
approximately 600 known silicate minerals, only the feldspars, amphiboles,
pyroxenes, micas, olivines, feldspathoids, and zeolites are significant in rock
formation.
Oxide Mineral:
Any naturally occurring inorganic compound with a structure based on close-packed
oxygen atoms in which smaller, positively charged metal or other ions
occur.
Oxide minerals are common in all rock types, whether igneous, sedimentary, or
metamorphic.
Clay Mineral:
Any of a group of important hydrous aluminum silicates with a layered
structure and very small (less than 0.005 mm or microscopic) particle size.
They are usually the products of weathering. Clay minerals occur widely in such
sedimentary rocks as mudstones and shales, in marine sediments, and in soils.
Different geologic environments produce different clay minerals from the same
parent rock. They are used in the petroleum industry (as drilling muds and as
catalysts in refining) and in the processing of vegetable and mineral oils (as
decolorizing agents).
Silica Mineral:
Any of the forms of silicon dioxide (SiO2), including quartz, tridymite,
cristobalite, coesite, stishovite, melanophlogite, lechatelierite, and chalcedony.
Various kinds of silica minerals have been produced synthetically.
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Halide Mineral :
Any of a group of naturally occurring inorganic compounds that contain a
halogen such as fluorine, chlorine, iodine, or bromine as the anion.
Such compounds, with the notable exceptions of fluorite, halite, and sylvite, are
rare and of very local occurrence.
Types of Mineral :
Metallic:
Mineral
Mettalic
Ferrous
Non -
Ferrous
Non -
Metallic
Metallic mineral contain metal in raw form. Any of a class of substances with,
to some degree, the following properties: good heat and electricity conduction,
malleability, ductility, high light reflectivity, and capacity to form positive ions in
solution and hydroxides rather than acids when their oxides meet water
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Types of Metallic Mineral:
i. Ferrous: Mineral like iron ore, manganese and chromites contain iron.
ii. Non-Ferrous: Mineral does not contain iron but may contain
some other metal such as gold, silver, copper or lead.
Non-Metallic: Mineral do not contain metals. Limestone, Mica and
gypsum are example of such mineral. The mineral fuels like coal and petroleum
are also non-metallic mineral.
Mineral Processing
Mineral Processing:
Mechanical treatment of crude ores to separate the valuable minerals.
Mineral processing was at first applied only to ores of precious metals but later
came to be used to recover other metals and nonmetallic minerals. It is also used
during coal preparation to enrich the value of raw coal. The primary operations
are comminution and concentration. Comminution is carried out by large jaw
crushers and by smaller cylindrical grinding mills. Common methods of
concentration are gravity separation and flotation separation. Gravity methods
include jigging (ground ore is fed into a pulsating body of water so that the
heavier mineral fractions settle out, leaving lighter wastes at the top) or washing
the ore down inclined planes, spirals, or shaking tables so that mineral and waste
fractions settle in different areas.
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Mining :
Excavation of materials from the Earth's crust, including those of organic origin,
such as coal and petroleum.
Modern mining is costly and complicated. First, a mineral vein that can likely
produce enough of the desired substance to justify the cost of extraction must be
located. Then the size of the vein or deposit is determined, and mining engineers
decide the best way to mine it. Most of the world's yearly mineral production is
extracted by surface mining, which includes open-pit mining, strip mining, and
quarrying. For ore bodies that lie a considerable distance below the surface,
underground mining must be considered. In both techniques, excavating and
extracting mineral substances involve costly combinations of drilling, blasting,
hoisting, and hauling, as well as measures for health and safety and reduction of
environmental impact.
Flotation:
Most widely used process for extracting many minerals from their ores.
The method separates and concentrates ores by altering their surfaces so that
they are either repelled or attracted by water. Unwetted particles, which adhere
to air that is bubbled through the water, will float in the froth, while wetted
particles will sink. The process was developed on a commercial scale early in the
20th century to remove very fine mineral particles that formerly had gone to
waste in gravity concentration plants. With its use to concentrate copper, lead,
and zinc minerals, which commonly accompany one another in their ores, many
complex ore mixtures formerly of little value have become major sources of
certain metals.
Ore :
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Aggregate of economically important minerals that is sufficiently rich to separate
for a profit.
Although more than 3,500 mineral species are known, only about 100 are
considered ore minerals. The term originally applied only to metallic minerals but
now includes such nonmetallic substances as sulfur, calcium fluoride (fluorite),
and barium sulfate (barite). Ore is always mixed with unwanted rocks and
minerals, known collectively as gangue. The ore and the gangue are mined
together and then separated. The desired element is then extracted from the ore.
The metal may be still further refined (purified) or alloyed with other metals.
