Question

Give some important ores of aluminium, iron, copper and zinc.

Answer 1

Hint: Naturally occurring rocks or sediments which contain economically important minerals can be termed as ore.

Complete solution:
An ore can be defined as a naturally occurring mineral (in the form of rocks or sediments), from which valuable matter can be extracted. Ore has a definite composition.
Minerals are natural materials in which we can find metals and its compounds.
Minerals, from which we can profitably extract metals, are called ores.
Ores can be of four types, namely- oxide ores, halides ore, sulphides ore, carbonates ore.
All ores are minerals but all minerals are not ores. This is because some of them might have a large amount of unwanted substances such as sand, stones and earthly impurities.
 For example: Aluminium occurs in earth's crust in the form of two minerals bauxite and clay. So, clay remains only as mineral and not as ore of aluminum.
(i) Aluminium ores-
- Bauxite ($Al_2H_2O_4$ )
- Cryolite ($Na_3AlF_6$ )
- Corundum ($Al_2O_3$ )
(ii) Iron ores -
- Haematite ($Fe_2O_3$ )
- Magnetite ($Fe_3O_4$ )
- Limonite ($2Fe_2O_3.3H_2O$ )
(iii) Copper ores-
- Chalcopyrite ($CuFeS_2$)
- Chalcocite ($Cu_2S$ )
- Covellite ($CuS$ )
(iv) Zinc ores-
- Calamine ($ZnCO_3$ )
- Zinc blende ($Zn,Fe$ )$S$
- Zincite ($ZnO$ )

Additional Information:
* Odisha is the largest producer of aluminium in India.
* Karnataka is the largest producer of iron in India.
* Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand are top producers of copper in India.
* Rajasthan is the chief producer of zinc in India.

Note: The extraction of ores from the earth’s crust is carried out through mining. After extraction, the ores are processes in order to extract the elements of our interest. Though Mining provides essential raw materials for industries, but we cannot neglect the serious pollution of surface and groundwater that it causes. So, it is very important to adopt various suitable methods in order to remove pollutants or to reduce this pollution.