The use of minerals can be said to be ubiquitous in our lives all the time. In addition to the use of mineral composition, another aspect is the use of various physical properties of minerals. Use of mineral components Metallurgical industry:
Extract useful elements from minerals and smelt them into metals needed for various industries. The most important is to extract iron from magnetite and hematite; Extraction of lead from galena; Extraction of copper from chalcopyrite and bornite; Extract chromium from chromite, etc. The most productive mineral in China is wolstenite, from which tungsten is the first in the world. Hunan Province of China is the world famous stibnite, from which a large amount of antimony is extracted. In the rare earth deposit of Bayan Obo in Inner Mongolia, the cerium fluocarbon ore used to extract cerium rare earth elements is also the richest in the world.
Metals needed in the defense industry such as beryllium are extracted from stone, niobium and tantalum are extracted from niobite and tantalite, and sodium in the atomic energy industry is extracted from crystalline sodium ore. Minerals in addition to the main elements will also be mixed with some trace elements, such as sodium amphibolite often have cadmium, occlude, germanium mixed, these elements are called dispersion elements, and these metals have important uses in the electronics industry. We also take these scattered elements and refine them into metals when we extract the main elements. Chemical raw materials: fluorite can be extracted into hydrofluoric acid, pyrite can be made into sulfuric acid and so on. Agriculture: As a fertilizer for increasing agricultural production, in addition to some synthetic fertilizers, potassium salt is used as potash fertilizer, and apatite is used as a source of phosphate fertilizer. The use of mineral physical properties Optical properties: the earliest use of calcite, quartz, fluorite as the prism on the optical instrument, and then found that many minerals have characteristic optical properties.
In 1960, it was discovered that gemstones (corundum) could be used as the key material for laser emission. Cadmiumite single crystals have special photoelasticity and can be used in radar. Color molybdenite has acoustooptic effect and can produce light diffraction under the action of sound waves. Scheitungsten, all emeralds have light color effect, tungsten is white in daylight, purple in ultraviolet light, all emeralds are green in daylight and red in light, can be used for laser holographic recording and storage. Single crystals of sphalerite are used as ultraviolet semiconductor laser materials. Electronic properties: The most common is the use of copper as a conductive material in wires. Diamond type 2 is an important semiconductor instrument. It can be used as the main photoelectric conversion material of near infrared, which is mainly used in satellite detection, military reconnaissance, medical thermal image instrument and so on.
Quartz has piezoelectric properties, and is mostly used in radar, communication, microprocessor and so on. Mica and talc can be used as insulation materials. Mechanical properties: mainly used for grinding and cutting materials, all minerals with a hardness greater than 7 degrees Mohs can be used, the hardest is diamond, followed by corundum, topaz, quartz and so on. Other properties: Due to the low thermal conductivity of asbestos, it can be used as thermal insulation materials, such as asbestos board and other products can be used as thermal insulation materials. Minerals with high melting point such as mullite can be used as refractory materials. Zeolite, attapulgite, montmorillonite, slop stone, sepiolite and many other minerals have adsorption and cation exchange of minerals can remove toxic elements and heavy metal elements in wastewater, is a filter material can absorb gas, liquid impurities, such as beer can be used to remove impurities
Rock use:
1, marble: marble rock surface texture is fine, commonly used as a wall or floor. Since marble is formed by the metamorphism of limestone, the main component is calcium carbonate, so it is also the raw material for the manufacture of cement. Marble material is soft and delicate, is a good sculpture stone, many famous statues are made of marble, such as the famous Venus statue. Others, such as walls or decorations, are often made of marble processing, such as vases, ashtrays, tables and other household items.
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2, Granite: The native granite can only be seen in Kinmen, so the old houses in Kinmen are almost made of granite. The granite used in Taiwan's temples is from Fujian, and is mostly used in temples for dragon columns, floor tiles, and stone lions.
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3. SLATE: Because it is easy to crack into thin sheets and is easily obtained in mountainous areas, indigenous people still use SLATE as building materials to build SLATE houses or walls.
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Mineral use:
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1. Gold mine: After weathering and erosion of gold-bearing rocks, gold will be separated into natural gold, because gold is much heavier than sand, easy to deposit, after panning, it becomes gold.
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2, chalcopyrite: chalcopyrite is the most important mineral for extracting copper.
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3, galena: Galena appears lead gray, with cube cleavage, is the most important lead-bearing mineral.
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4, hematite: Hematite appearance color is iron gray or reddish-brown, is the most important iron bearing minerals.
? Use of minerals: Different minerals have different uses, such as some rare earth minerals, which contain rare earth elements that can be mined and can be used in many industries. The iron in iron ore is an important raw material for the steel industry