How Are Metals, Minerals And Ores Related?
Pure metals are chemical elements. This means they cannot be broken down into other substances. There are over a hundred chemical elements known and about 80 of these are metals. A few metals such as gold, silver, platinum and sometimes copper are found in the earth in their pure state. Most metals however are not found free in nature. They are found in chemical combination with other elements. Chemical compounds that are found in nature are called minerals. Minerals that are valuable for metals they contain are called ores. The value of an ore depends on how much metal is in the ore and how costly is it to remove the metal from the ore. It also depends on the demand of the metal. Many processes are used to obtain pure metal from ore. Some need to go through only a few steps, while other ores must go through many steps. Copper and gold were probably the first metals man learned to use. They occur in nature in a free state as well as in ores.
