Question

An ore on treatment with dilute hydrochloric acid produces brisk effervescence. Name the type of ore with one example. What steps will be required to obtain metal from the enriched ore? Also, write the chemical equations for the reactions involved in the process.

Answer 1

To answer this question the concepts in metallurgy should be known. In metallurgy, many processes are used to concentrate the ore of the materials. Roasting and calcination are the known process for the concentration of ore. mineral and ore are two natural materials.

Complete step by step answer:
-The main source of ore and mineral is the earth. Metals and their components are found in minerals. The ore is the mineral from which metals can be extracted conventionally and cheaply.
-In the case of the ore, the percentage of metal is greater than other minerals. For example, the ore of aluminum is bauxite. From bauxite, aluminum can be extracted cheaply and profitably. But aluminum is also found in clay, but it is not possible to extract aluminum from clay cheaply and profitably. That is why bauxite is the ore of aluminum.
-To extract metals from ore the steps are,
The concentration of ore.
Conversion of the concentrated ore into metallic oxide.
Reduction of metallic oxides.
Refining the impure metal.
-Now, in this case, an ore on treatment with dilute hydrochloric acid produces brisk effervescence. Here, the effervescence is because of carbon dioxide. His ore should be a carbonate ore, any carbonate compound like zinc carbonate forms carbon dioxide effervescence in presence of acids. So, it should be a carbonate ore,
-To extract pure metal from this kind of ore of carbonate can be possible by the following steps,
Concentrate the ore using calcination and convert it into oxide. As follows, let take zinc carbonate as an example,
$ZnC{O_3}\xrightarrow{{HEAT}}ZnO + C{O_2}$
Reduced the oxide to obtain the pure metal by reacting the oxide with the carbon monoxide. The reaction is shown below.
$ZnO + CO \to Zn + C{O_2} \uparrow$
In this reaction carbon dioxide is formed which is a gas and can easily separate and pure zinc metal is formed.

Note:
Roasting is a metallurgical process involving a gas-solid reaction in presence of air at high temperatures to purify the ore of the material.
Calcination is another process of metallurgy to purify the metal at high temperatures in absence of air.
But during both processes, the ore is heated below the melting temperature of the metal.
In the case of roasting of sulfide ore done in metallurgy of copper. Due to partial roasting, the copper sulfide becomes copper oxide which further reacts with unreacted copper sulfide and gives auto reduction. The reaction is shown below.
$2C{u_2}S + 3{O_2} \to 2C{u_2}O + S{O_2}$ , $2C{u_2}O{\text{ }} + {\text{ }}C{u_2}S\; \to {\text{ }}6Cu{\text{ }} + {\text{ }}S{O_2}$ .