Mineral economic importance

The economic importance of an ore deposit itself is largely affected by mineral or metal prices. Mine closures and reopenings are a common event in the mineral iadustry for this reason. Economics can also be affected by the ore composition, for example, by unacceptable levels of penalty elements ia the ore. The assessment of overall economics of exploiting a given ore deposit is similar to that for any large-scale industry. The various cost components are those associated with equipment, labor, utiUties, contingencies, operation and production, transportation, working capital, suppHes, maintenance. 

Naturally occurring cadmium compounds are limited to the rare minerals, greenockite [1317-58 ] CdS, and otavite (1), an oxycarbonate, but neither is an economically important source of cadmium metal or its compounds. Instead, cadmium compounds are more usually derived from metallic cadmium [7440-43-9] which is produced as a by-product of lead—2inc smelting or electrolysis (see Cadmiumand cadmium alloys). Typically, this cadmium metal is burnt as a vapor, to produce the brown-black cadmium oxide [1306-19-0], CdO, which then acts as a convenient starting material for most of the economically important compounds. 

Most abundant group of materials, composed of silicates of aluminium with sodium, potassium, calcium, and rarely barium. Most economically important mineral. Used for ceramics, glass, abrasive wheels, cements, insulation and fertilizer. 

The Expo Intrusive Suite is for the most part composed of mafic and ultramafic intrusions, shaped as tabular-shaped discordant bodies, so are referred as dykes. The Expo suite is economically important due to the presence of sulfide mineralization in the internal part of the intrusion. It is composed of gabbro norite, pyroxenite, peridotite, and dunite. 

Flotation Properties of Individual Oxide Lead Zinc Minerals of Economic Importance 69... 

FLOTATION PROPERTIES OF INDIVIDUAL OXIDE LEAD ZINC MINERALS OF ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE... 

Titanium is the most abundant metal in the earth crust, and is present in excess of 0.62%. It can be found as dioxy titanium and the salts of titanium acids. Titanium is capable of forming complex anions representing simple titanites. It can also be found in association with niobium, silicates, zircon and other minerals. A total of 70 titanium minerals are known, as mixtures with other minerals and also impurities. Only a few of these minerals are of any economic importance. 

Occurrence. Strontianite (SrC03) and celestite (SrS04) are the only minerals of economic importance. 

D GIS provides a particularly useful method to address the challenges of deep mineral exploration as it permits spatial data analysis in a rigorous fashion (de Kemp 2007). Based on examples from the Noranda camp, one of Canada s most mature and economically important mining camps, the present paper highlights innovative approaches that can be... 

As noted in Section 3.1, Si—0 bonds gain high strength from the large electronegativity difference between Si and 0, while remaining covalent and thus directional. Consequently, —Si—0—Si—0— (polysiloxane) chains are very stable indeed. Furthermore, since Si is almost always tetravalent, branched Si—0 chains and, indeed, sheets and three-dimensional networks are common both in naturally occurring minerals and in synthetic silicates, many of which are of primary economic importance (Chapter 7). 

Titanium is the ninth most abundant element in the earth s crust, and always occurs in combination with oxygen. The more important titanium minerals are shown in Table 12. Of the natural titanium minerals, only ilmenite, leucoxene, and rutile are of economic importance. Leucoxene is a weathering product of ilmenite. 

TABLE I. PRINCIPAL ECONOMICALLY IMPORTANT COBALT MINERALS... 

Minerals of economic importance within sedimentary formations include, hut are not limited to fluorite, barite, phosphorite, and oolitic hematite. Fluorite is utili/ed us a flux in steelniakiitg and when of high quality as lenses and prisms in the optical industry. Barite is an essential mineral used m gas- and oil-well drilling. Phosphorite, a product of chemical precipitation from seawater, when ircaled with sulfuric acid, produces superphosphate fertilizer, (.killtic hematite deposits of extensive size are important sources of iron ore. 

Strategic row materials— several hundred economic minerals and important raw materials used in chemical processing. 

Isomorphous substitution can occur both for the metal ion in the mineral or for the sulphide. The minor elemental constituents of the ore minerals may have considerable economic importance. For example, galena (PbS) can contain several percent Ag, and Cd is a prominent guest in sphalerite (ZnS). 

A number of oxides are economically important ore minerals, such as hematite (iron), chromite (chrome), zincite (zinc), and cassiterite (tin). Some gemstone species are oxides, including corundum (ruby and sapphire), spinel, and chrysoberyl. Corundum is the second hardest natural substance and is used as an abrasive. 

Halides are compounds that include one of the halogen elements fluorine, chlorine, bromine, or iodine. The simplest halides are combinations of one element, such as sodium (Na), with a halogen element, such as chlorine (Cl). Complex halides combine two or more elements with a halogen, and some contain water. Some halides are economically important minerals, such as halite (common salt), fluorite (fluorine), and chlorargyrite (silver ore). 

It has been stated that chemistry is the study of matter and its transformations. One of the major objectives of this book is to provide information on how the basic raw materials from the earth are transformed to produce inorganic compounds that are used on an enormous scale. It focuses attention on the transformations of a relatively few inorganic compounds available in nature into many others whether or not they are at present economically important. As you study this book, try to see the connection between obtaining a mineral by mining and the reactions that are used to convert it into end use products. Obviously, this book cannot provide the details for all such processes, but it does attempt to give an overview of inorganic chemistry and its methods and to show its relevance to the production of useful materials. Petroleum and coal are the major raw materials for organic compounds, but the transformation of these materials is not the subject of this book. 

Next to aluminium, iron is the most abundant and widely distributed metal in the crust of the earth.1 It is seldom found free in nature owing to the extreme readiness with which it combines with moist air to form the hydrated oxide known as rust. Such ferruginous minerals as contain a sufficiently high percentage of iron, possess a suitable chemical composition, and occur in nature in large quantity, are termed ores and are used for the commercial extraction of iron. Owing to their economic importance the ores of iron have been studied with unusual care, and the suitability of the more important types for metallurgical purposes is discussed in Part III. of this volume. 

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