Chemistry- The Earth

• Metal ores are found in the earths crust
• an ore is a rock which has enough metal/ metal compound to make it profitable to extract the metals
• Most metals are found as compounds in rock
• To extract a metal you must mine an ore from the earths crust. Crush the ore. Remove the sandy/ rocky impurities, this will concentrate the metal compound. Then extract the metal from the metal compound using a chemical reaction.
• Extraction of metals:

  
• Iron, zinc, tin, Lead and copper can all be extracted by heating their ores with carbon
• Some metals like potassium, sodium, calcium, Magnesium and Aluminium cannot be extracted using carbon. This is because the metals are more reactive than carbon, so the carbon cannot displace the metal from its compound