Question

Name two non-ferrous minerals.

Answer 1

Hint: Non-ferrous minerals are very useful for their tensile strength, malleability, resistance to corrosion, etc. They are preferred over ferrous minerals for these reasons and are used in several objects of our daily life: from spoons to aeroplanes.

Complete answer: Non-ferrous minerals are generally metals that do not contain iron in appreciable amounts. Such metals are often derived from ores of minerals such as sulfides, carbonates and silicates. These are refined through the process of electrolysis. Non-ferrous metals were the very first metals that were used to carry out metallurgy.

These metals are preferred over ferrous metals for various characteristics that these possess. Light weight, higher conductivity, resistance to corrosion, etc. are some of these characteristics. Non-ferrous metals are extensively used. Due to this, scrap metal of this kind is recycled. The secondary scrap metal is very important for the metallurgy industry.

Two non-ferrous minerals are aluminum and copper.

Note: What differentiates non-ferrous minerals from others is that even though these are metals, these do not contain much iron, unlike ferrous metals. Try to remember the characteristics of the metals in order to classify them as non-ferrous minerals. For instance, aluminum is a lightweight metal and has negligible iron content. These factors indicate that it is a non-ferrous mineral.