Minerals and Energy Resources Test - 19

Most of the manganese produced is used in the form of ferromanganese and silicomanganese alloys for iron and steel manufacture. Manganese ores containing iron oxides are first reduced in blast furnaces or electric furnaces with carbon to yield ferromanganese, which in turn is used in steelmaking.

• Bauxite is actually not a mineral. It is a rock formed from a laterite soil that has been severely leached of silica and other soluble materials in a wet tropical or subtropical climate. Aluminum is extracted from this ore.
  
• Largest producer of bauxite is Australia.
  

 

Bauxite is the most important ore of aluminum which contains only 30–54% alumina, Al2O3; the rest is a mixture of silica, various iron oxides, and titanium dioxide along with trace amounts of zinc, phosphorous, nickel, vanadium etc

 

Hematite, also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide with a formula called Fe2O3 and has been widespread in rocks and soils

 

Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS)

 

The mineral monazite is a reddish-brown phosphate containing rare earth metals and an important source of thorium, lanthanum, and cerium

 

 

 

Mica is a mineral made up of a series of plates or leaves. It splits easily into thin sheets. These sheets can be so thin that a thousand can be layered into a mica sheet of a few centimeters high. 

• An alloy can be defined as a mixture of metal with other element. Ferro alloy is iron mixed with other element.
  
• Manganese is a chemical compound which is not found as a free element. It is often found as an alloy mixed with iron. It is mainly used in production of stainless steel.
  

limestone is found in association with rocks composed of calcium carbonates or calcium and magnesium carbonates. It is found in sedimentary rocks of most geological formations. Limestone is the basic raw material for the cement industry and essential for smelting iron ore in the blast furnace.

Minerals can be extracted by mining, drilling or quarrying. For minerals near the surface quarrying is done to extract them.

Coal and petroleum are categorised as fuel minerals. Fuel minerals are mainly three types namely coal, petroleum and natural gas. These are carbonaceous fuels. These are extracted from earth and are formed by fossil decomposition and are hence called fossil fuels. These fuels form major source of energy.

• Aluminum is extracted from bauxite ore.
  
• Bauxite is obtained from the residual mass of weathered material after rock decomposition.
  
• Bauxite is actually not a mineral. It is a rock formed from a laterite soil that has been severely leached of silica and other soluble materials in a wet tropical or subtropical climate.