Essays on Ores

1.0 Tectonic Setting of South China Hong Kong, which is located near the southeastern margin of the Eurasian Continental Plate (ECP), called the Cathaysia Block, in Southeast China, rests on a stable intraplate region of the ECP some 700 km from its nearest plate boundary, an area that underlies Taiwan and trends southward to the Philippines and northeastward to Japan (Pappin, Koo, Free, & Tsang, 2008). Although stable, this continental intraplate region has been associated with earthquakes in the past as it straddles the northeast-trending Lianhuashan Fault Zone. There are two major fault zones, which trends in the regional northeast ...

Extraction Stage

Extraction of copper produces both specks of dust and gaseous wastes such as sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide that significantly contribute to environmental pollutions, especially air pollution (“Copper Mining”). Whereas copper wire miners reduce this pollution level by trapping the generated sulfur dioxide gas for purposes of producing sulfuric acid, considerable amounts of sulfur dioxide still escape and take part in both air and water pollution. However, extraction methods that incorporate emulsion of liquid membranes and applications of microorganisms in removing copper from their underground ores have been currently established as the economical and viable ways of gathering copper. ...

Uranium (U) element was discovered by a German chemist, Heinrich Klaproth, in 1789. Uranium is a radioactive element with an atomic weight of 238.02891 and an atomic number of 92. The uranium element initially discovered by Heinrich was an oxide, uranium oxide. A French chemist, Eugène-Melchoir Péligot, was the first person to produce pure uranium by reacting it with potassium in a heated platinum crucible. The element’s radioactive properties were established in 1896 by a French physicist known as Antoine Henri Becquerel. Currently, uranium can be extracted from various ores such as carnotite (K2(UO2)2VO4· ...