Whats the difference between a metal found in its pure state and an ore?
Most if not all metals are rarely to almost never found in nature in their pure form. Instead, they occur as metal sulfides, metal oxides (and hydroxides), or metal carbonates, or other more rare minerals. A typical base metal ore (ore of copper, zinc, lead, etc) will only run a couple weight percent on average. That means to get a couple pounds of metal, you need a ton of rock. With precious or rare metals, the concentration can be as low as a few parts per million to be worth mining (a few grams per thousand kilograms – sorry I don’t think in ounces at this level). Metal in its pure state is called “native”. Native copper is not that uncommon; native lead or zinc is a lot less common. Native gold is pretty rare, and we speak of gold as visible gold when it can actually be seen with the naked eye (without a magnifying lens or microscope), which is a relatively rare occurence even in ore deposits. Iron is such a reactive metal that I can hardly think of anywhere that it is found as the
