Making Metals from Minerals
We rely on metals, such as aluminum, copper, iron, and gold. Look around the room. How
many objects have metal parts? Remember to include anything that uses electricity. Metals
are used in the tiny parts inside your computer and on the outside of large building, such as
the one shown in theFigure3.29. Whether the metal makes the aluminum can that you
drink out of or the copper wires in your computer, it started out as an ore. But the ore’s
journey to becoming a useable metal is only just beginning when the ore leaves the mine.
Figure 3.29: The De Young Museum in San Francisco is covered in copper panels. ( 14 )Mining produces a mixture of rocks that contain ore and other rocks that do not contain