Question

The material mixed before ore is subjected for smelting in the extraction of iron is:
A.Cake and silica
B.Coke and limestone
C.Limestone and silica
D.Coke, limestone, silica

Answer 1

Hint: Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore in order to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract metals from their ores. Coke is used as a fuel and as a reducing agent in smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Limestone is used to remove the accompanying rock gangue and slag. It is used as a flux.

Complete Step By Step Solution:
Before subjecting the ore for smelting to extract iron, we need a Reducing agent and a Flux so that we can extract the pure metal. So, Coke is used as a Reducing Agent and Limestone is used as a Flux for extracting iron from its ore through smelting.

So, option (B) is correct.

Additional Information:
Smelting: It is a process by which a metal is obtained, either as the element or as a simple compound from its ore by heating beyond the melting point ordinarily in the presence of oxidizing agents, such as air, or reducing agents, such as coke. The first metal to be smelted in the ancient Middle East was probably copper followed by tin, lead, and silver. To achieve the high temperatures required for smelting, furnaces with forced-air draft were developed; for iron, temperatures even higher were required. Smelting thus represented a major technological achievement. Charcoal was the universal fuel until coke was introduced in 18th-century England.
In modern ore treatment, various preliminary steps are usually carried out before smelting in order to concentrate the metal ore as much as possible. In the smelting process a metal that is combined with oxygen—for example, iron oxide—is heated to a high temperature, and the oxide is caused to combine with the carbon in the fuel, escaping as carbon-monoxide or carbon dioxide. Other impurities, collectively called gangue, are removed by adding a flux with which they combine to form a slag.
Calcium oxide, in the form of lime, was often used for this purpose, and since it could react with the carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide produced during smelting to keep them out of the working environment.
Coke is used as a fuel and as a reducing agent in smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. The carbon monoxide produced by its combustion reduces iron oxide (hematite) to the iron product.

Note: Study regarding Metallurgy, Smelting, and methods to do it, ores, the metals obtained from them, previous methods, modern day methods, difference between them. One can study about other Reducing Agents and can compare their effectiveness. The slag formed and the flux used to remove it. Other materials used as Flux in extraction of metals other than iron from their respective ores.