1

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

2

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:

Any member of a family of minerals that contains the carbonate ion, CO32−,

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.

3

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.

4

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: 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

Mineral

Mettalic

Ferrous Non - Ferrous

Non - Metallic

5

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.

6

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.

7

Ore : 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.