in this lesson we will learn about
minerals ores and how minerals can be
extracted from ores as you may already
know the earth's crust is made of rocks
if you look closely at a rock you will
see that there are many different bits
some bits are dull whereas other bits or
rather shiny the main idea here is that
all these components occur naturally in
other words they are not made in a
factory or by a human being a naturally
occurring element or compound is known
as a mineral
or is simply a rock containing a high
percentage of a certain mineral for
example hematite contains a high
percentage of iron the extraction of
iron from hematite is done in a blast
furnace malachite contains a high
percentage of copper cinnabar contains a
high percentage of mercury we can think
about an ore a bit like a chocolate chip
cookie we really want the chocolate if
there are more chocolate chips in the
cookie then the extraction process would
be more economically beneficial as more
minerals in this case the chocolate can
be obtained if there are fewer chocolate
chips then the extraction process may
not be as economically beneficial for
the most part the minerals are oxides
carbonates or sulfides of the metal of
interest some ores of nonmetals include
quartz which contain a high percentage
of silicon in the form of silicon
dioxide limestone is also an ore can you
remember what is found in a high
percentage in limestone pause think and
continue when ready
the answer is calcium carbonate
limestone contains a high percentage of
calcium but calcium exists as calcium
carbonate the iron in hematite is mostly
iron 3 oxide the copper in malachite is
mostly copper 2 carbonate the mercury in
cinnabar is primarily found as mercury 2
sulfide the extraction process for each
or can vary but the key idea here is
that the mineral must be present in a
high enough percentage or else the
process would not be very economically
beneficial now before we can extract a
selected metal we must first consider
its reactivity by looking at this
reactivity table the most reactive
metals are at the top of the series and
the least reactive at the bottom of the
series although carbon and hydrogen are
not metals they are still included in
the table for comparison purposes a more
reactive element can displace a less
reactive element in a compound can you
remember what this type of reaction is
called pause think and continue when
ready
the answer is a single displacement
reaction so to extract a metal from an
ore a single displacement reaction must
occur we can mimic the extraction of
copper from malachite using copper to
carbonate powder copper to carbonate is
a green solid that thermally decomposes
to form copper to oxide and carbon
dioxide upon heating copper to oxide is
a black powder and believe it or not we
can actually extract copper metal from
copper to oxide place three spoonfuls of
copper to oxide in a crucible and one
spoonful of charcoal which is
essentially carbon heat this using a
Bunsen burner with the crucible lid
slightly ajar for approximately five
minutes while that is in progress why
don't you grab a piece of paper and a
pencil and predict the products of this
single displacement reaction pause the
lesson and resume when ready
the carbon displaces copper in copper to
oxide to give copper metal and carbon
dioxide
remove the crucible from the Bunsen
burner and empty its contents into a
beaker of cold water pour out the water
in charcoal rinse with water and repeat
this must be done when the mixture is
hot or else copper to oxide will reform
you will find little bits of copper
metal at the bottom of the beaker you
have successfully extracted copper metal
in another lesson you will learn how to
extract iron using a form of carbon
known as coke
some metals such as gold and platinum
are not found in ores but rather exist
naturally as native metal note that
these are less reactive metals and
therefore do not form oxide sulphide or
carbonate compounds in summary and ore
is a rock that contains a high
percentage of a certain type of mineral
which can exist as an oxide sulfide or
carbonate compound the mineral can be
extracted by a single displacement
reaction using a more reactive element