Iron is the most vital metal in human use.It constitutes 5.05%of the crust material and hold third position in abundance after silicon and aluminium .
It this blog I will give you brief description about ore minerals of iron.
The classification and occurrence of the iron ore will be discuss later .
The chief ore of iron are it's oxides and carbonates .
The important ore minerals of Iron are
1 Hematite
2 Magnetite
3 Turgite
4 Goethite(Limonite )
5 Siderite
HEMATITE (Fe2O3)
Hematite is a dark brown or steel grey or black coloured,strongly magnetic mineral .The streak(powder apearded after rubbing ) of hematite is cherry red .It shows dull or earthy lustre .It's form is massive ,some time rhombohedral .Cleavage is not present in hematite.
It breaks with uneven to conchoidal fracture .
It hardness ranges from 5 to 6 and have a high specific gravity ,4.8 to 5.3.
It is composed of about 69% to 70% of iron.
MAGNETITE (Fe3O4)
Magnetite is a iron black colored mineral strongly magnetic rock which have black streak and metallic lustre.Usualy have granular and massive form and shows conchoidal fracture .It has hardness of 5.5 to 6.5 and have a high specific gravity of 4.8 to 5.4.
It is composed of about 72% iron
TURGITE 2Fe2O3.H2O
Turbite is often referd as a variety of hematite or goethite .It is brown or red colour. It is a mixture two ore more minerals due to the alteration of goethite .It is typically found in botryoidal habit .
It contain about 66% iron
GOETHITE Fe2O3 .H2O
It is a yellowish brown mineral having a specific gravity of about 3.5 to 4.5. It sometime appears dark brown to black in colour and generally have a metallic lustre .The hardness of goethite is 5 to 5.5 .It has conchoidal fracture .
Contain 62% iron and become magnetic when heated.
SIDERITE FeCO3
Siderite is ash grey to brown in colour .It shows brown streak and have specific gravity of 3.9
It shows virtuous lustre and granular ,botryoidal habit.It shows uneven fracture and have hardness of about 4
It contain about 48% iron.
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