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Elemental iron is virtually absent on the Earth's surface except as iron-nickel alloys from meteorites and very rare forms of deep mantle xenoliths.Although iron is the fourth most abundant element in Earth's crust, composing about 5% by weight, [4] the vast majority is bound in silicate or, more rarely, carbonate minerals, and smelting pure iron from these minerals would require a prohibitive ...
The gray spheres are oxygen, green are divalent iron, blue are trivalent iron. Also shown are an iron atom in an octahedral space (light blue) and another in a tetrahedral space (gray). Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe 2+ Fe 3+ 2 O 4.
Its name comes from the Ancient Greek word σίδηρος (sídēros), meaning "iron". A valuable iron ore, it consists of 48% iron and lacks sulfur and phosphorus. Zinc, magnesium, and manganese commonly substitute for the iron, resulting in the siderite-smithsonite, siderite-magnesite, and siderite-rhodochrosite solid solution series. [3]
Chemistry portal; Economically important iron deposits include: Carajás Mine in the state of Pará, Brazil, is thought to be the largest iron deposit in the world. El Mutún in Bolivia, where 10% of the world's accessible iron ore is located. Hamersley Basin is the largest iron ore deposit in Australia.
Limonite (/ ˈ l aɪ m ə ˌ n aɪ t /) is an iron ore consisting of a mixture of hydrated iron(III) oxide-hydroxides in varying composition. The generic formula is frequently written as FeO(OH)·nH 2 O, although this is not entirely accurate as the ratio of oxide to hydroxide can vary quite widely.
Iron ore was also used as a flux in the smelting of copper. These agents served various functions, the simplest being a reducing agent, which prevented oxides from forming on the surface of the molten metal, while others absorbed impurities into slag , which could be scraped off molten metal.
Hematite is not only harder than pure iron, but also much more brittle. The term kidney ore may be broadly used to describe botryoidal, mammillary, or reniform hematite. [8] Maghemite is a polymorph of hematite (γ-Fe 2 O 3) with the same chemical formula, but with a spinel structure like magnetite.
The mineral pyrite (/ ˈ p aɪ r aɪ t / PY-ryte), [6] or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S 2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral .