Where Do Metals Come From?

Pure metals are chemical elements. This means that they can not be broken down into other substances. There are over a hundred chemical elements known, and about 80 of these are metals.

Few metals, such as gold, platinum, silver, and sometimes copper, are found in the earth in there pure they are found only in chemical state. Most metals, however, are not found free in nature. They are found only in combination with other elements.
Chemical compounds   that that are found in nature are called minerals. Minerals that are valuable for the metals they contain are called ores. The value of an ore depends on how much metal is in the ore and how costly it is to remove the metal from the ore. It also depends on the demand for the metal. Many processes are use to obtain pure metal from ore. Some ore needs to go through only a few steps, while other ores must go through many steps. When ores come from the mine, it usually contains large amounts of unwanted material, such as clay and stone. This worthless material is usually removed before the valuable part of the ore is processed further.