Lesson 05 · Ore Bodies
Oxides — metal joined to oxygen
What you’ll getRecognise the oxide family, the metals it gives us, and why we reach for a furnace instead of bubbles.
Oxygen is everywhere, so this family is huge and old — it gave us the metals that built the industrial world.
The definition: an oxide is a mineral where the metal is joined to oxygen (written O). That's the only change from sulfides — swap the sulfur partner for an oxygen partner — but it changes how we process everything.
The star minerals
- Hematite and magnetite — the two great iron ores. Magnetite is magnetic, which makes it easy to pull out with magnets.
- Cassiterite — the main ore of tin.
- Rutile — an ore of titanium.
How we get the metal out
Iron oxide goes into a blast furnace: it's heated with coke (a coal product) so the carbon grabs the oxygen and pulls it off the iron, leaving molten iron behind. In short, you don't float oxides off on bubbles the way you do sulfides — their surfaces don't cooperate. Instead you lean on furnaces, magnets, and leaching.
The contrast that ties it togetherThe very same metal can show up as a sulfide or an oxide, and the two are handled in completely different worlds. Sulfide → think bubbles (flotation). Oxide → think furnace. This is the whole point of families in action.