[dhjip]

Hi peoples

Could somebody explain to me in details the chemical processes for the extraction for either all or just some of the metals from the following ores?
Copper from CuFeS2
Iron from Fe2O3
Aluminium from Al2O3

Thanks

[Borek]

You just don't ask. You try, you tell us what you did, we push you in the right direction.

[dhjip]

Right
Here's what I did, I've searched through the net and my local library for any infomation on the extraction of the metals, however I have not ben satisfactorily successful. I have only been able to find patents and amatuer power point presentations for it, both of which are very general, most of the info is irrelevent to the task at hand for me. So far what I have been able to comprehend is that for copper and/or iron, it goes through the stages of crushing, and it divides the ore has high enough content of the wanted metal or not. Then is concentrated, one way this is achieved is through froth floatation and its where a "collector" is added then the explanation provided for this begins to have serious gramatical errors in such a way i cant understand. supposedly the wanted metal is around 30% concentrated by now. and then the ore solution is put through a smelter, somehow, adding intense heat and oxygen and silica will turn the ore solution into a form of copper called blister copper and slag, the slag moves to the top of the mixture which is then just scooped off, and then finally electrosis is used to get rid of the last of the impurities and voila, you have your metal.

now thats what ive done and know. so you know im not just sitting here with my mouth open waiting for someone to spoon feed me the infomation.
As you can see there are no chemical formulas, thats because I have not been able to find those chemical formulas, and this is chemistry, without the chemical formulas, i might as well have just explained how to bake a cake.


If your only willing to just push me in the right direction, does anybody know of some magical place, site or source that i can access where i will be able find more than just the general process of the extraction of the metals in stupid people language???

[AWK]

Have you searched wikipedia. I doubt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_extraction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_extraction_techniques
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ferrous_Metallurgy

[dhjip]

Have you searched wikipedia. I doubt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_extraction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_extraction_techniques
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ferrous_Metallurgy

You are right there, I have not searched wikipedia, due to the fact that it is very likely to be bogus information. During tenth grade I used information from wikipedia in an assignment and it turned out to be false information and I got a D on the assignment. unless you can guarantee me that all the information there is indeed true, I'd prefer to avoid using wikipedia.

[AWK]

Wikipedia is not a textbook or a monograph, but it is a good starting point, every day still better.

[macman104]

Don't be afraid of using wikipedia as a starting point ever.  If the article is any good, then there should be external links and references cited in the article.  Read the wiki pages to get an overview, then dive into the refs and external links.

Also, you can always check the discussion page, it's a good spot to see if any debates have come up about the article.  Don't be afraid, just be smart.

[Arkcon]

The American Chemical Society routinely keeps track of the chemical statistic content on wikipedia, and corrects for vandalism.  Now, if someone wants to spout off on random pseudoscience in an article of their own, ACS won't help that.  But no one's going to get away with putting made-up formulas in a technical article.  We often send people on this forum to wikipedia first, assuming they can't find what they need in their textbook's table of contents or glossary.

[dhjip]

Ok, i'll remember that. Thanks for everything peoples

[cliverlong]

I typed the following text

"extraction iron"

into a useful tool called "Google"

The first two entries listed were:

http://www.chemguide.co.uk/inorganic/extraction/iron.html
http://www.gcsescience.com/ex17.htm

etc.

Clive