Many ores contain valuable metals that can be extracted and used for construction, infrastructure, and more. Extraction is a technique that allows large pieces of ore to be broken down into pieces small enough for the valuable metal to be removed. Metal extraction is extremely important technique because the metals inside ores have special properties such as strength, durability, malleability, and ductility. 1 Iron, copper, aluminum are a few examples of widely used metals that are commonly extracted from their ores. In this experiment, copper was extracted from one of its ores, malachite.
Since the beginning of time, metals have played a vital role in hunting, farming, and crafting tools.2 Around 7000 BC, people began to shape copper into
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The chemical reactions can be found below in Table 2.8 The amount of copper metal extracted from the 0.9899 g sample of malachite was measured to be 0.5682g. The theoretical yield of copper metal was calculated to be 0.5690 g. The percent yield was calculated to be 0.135%. The sample calculations for theoretical yield and percent yield can be found after Table 3.
At the conclusion of heating the malachite, the hammer test and the resistance test were performed on the samples of copper to test their physical properties as compared to pure copper metal. The hammer test was performed to see if the sample was malleable since pure copper can change shape easily when force is applied. When the large pieces of malachite were struck with the hammer, they crumbled into smaller pieces and flaked off in layers. The small pieces of copper changed shape readily and were soft in texture.
The resistance test was performed to gauge the purity of the copper metal. Pure copper metal should have little to no resistance when tested with a multi-meter because it conducts electricity easily. The readings were taken at various locations on a sample of malachite and were as follows: 43.17Ω, 11.0 Ω, 23.7 Ω. The average value was 26.0