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Chapter 6 : Land and its resources

Minerals In The Earth’s Crust

What are Minerals?

 Minerals are natural elements or compounds present in the Earth’s

crust.

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 Some minerals oxides, sulphides and carbonate.

Type of mineral Chemical name Elements

Bauxite Aluminium oxide Aluminium, oxygen
Hematite, magnetite Iron oxide Iron, oxygen
Cassiterite Tin oxide Tin, oxygen
Quartz, sand Silicon oxide Silicon, oxygen
Galena Lead sulphide Lead, sulphur
Iron pyrite Iron sulphide Iron, sulphur
Cholcocite Copper sulphide Copper, sulphur
Calcite, marble, limestone Calcium carbonate Calcium, carbon, oxygen
Magnesite Magnesium carbonate Magnesium, carbon, oxygen
Malachite Copper carbonate Copper, carbon, oxygen
Siderite Iron carbonate Iron, carbon, oxygen

 Minerals which are still present in the Earth’s crust are :-

 Hard
 Insoluble in water
 Not decomposed by heat

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The Properties of Some Minerals

1. Metal oxides
 Metal oxides are hard and do not dissolve in water expect the oxide of
potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium.

 These oxides dissolve in water to form alkaline solutions such as potassium

hydroxide solution and sodium hydroxide solution.

 Metal oxides do not decompose on heating expect mercury oxide and silver
oxide.

heat
Mercury oxide Mercury + oxygen

heat
Silver oxide Silver + oxygen

2. Metal carbonates
 Most metal carbonates are hard minerals.

 Metal carbonates do not dissolve in water expect potassium carbonate and

sodium carbonate.

 Metal carbonates decompose on strong heating and release carbon dioxide

expect potassium carbonate and sodium carbonate.

 Potassium and sodium are very active elements. They hold on to the
carbonate very strongly and so potassium and sodium carbonates cannot
decompose on heating.

heat
Metal carbonate metal oxide + carbon dioxide

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Example:

heat
Calcium carbonate calcium oxide + carbon dioxide

heat
Copper carbonate copper oxide + carbon dioxide

heat
Magnesium carbonate magnesium oxide + carbon dioxide

3. Metal sulphides
 Metal sulphides are hard.

 Metal sulphides do not dissolve in water expect potassium sulphides and

sodium sulphides.

 Metal sulphides decompose on heating to release sulphur oxide expect

potassium sulphide and sodium sulphides.

heat
Metal sulphide + oxygen metal oxide + sulphur dioxide

Example:

heat
Lead sulphide + oxygen lead oxide + sulphur dioxide
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 Janet Jong 2010

heat
Copper sulphide + oxygen copper oxide + sulphur dioxide

 Sulphur dioxide is an acidic pungent gas. It turns the colour

of acidified potassium manganate (VII) solution from
purple to colourless. This reaction is used as a test for
sulphur dioxde.

Reactions of Metals with Non-metal

 Elements can be classified into metals and non-metals.

1. METALS
 Shiny & tough.
 Have high melting & boiling points expect mercury.
 Good conductors of heat & electricity.
 Example: iron
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: calcium
: copper
: gold
: silver

2. NON-METALS
 Dim & fragile.
 Melting point & the boiling point are low expect diamond.
 Poor conductors of heat & electricity.
 Example: carbon
: sulphur
: oxygen
: hydrogen

Reaction of Metals with Sulphur

 Metals react with sulphur to produce metal sulphides.

heat
Metal + sulphur metal sulphide

Example:

heat
Zinc + sulphur zinc sulphide (white powder)

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 Janet Jong 2010

heat
Copper + sulphur copper sulphide (black powder)

heat
Magnesium + sulphur magnesium sulphide (white powder)

heat
Aluminium + sulphur aluminium sulphide (grey powder)

heat
Iron + sulphur iron sulphide (black powder)

 The products of the reaction are different in form and colouur from
the metals.

 Reactive metals react quickly with sulphur.

Reaction of metals with oxygen
 Metals react with oxygen to produce metal oxides.

heat
Metal + oxygen metal oxide

Example:

heat
Iron + oxygen iron oxide (red)

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 Janet Jong 2010

heat
Magnesium + oxygen magnesium oxide (white)

heat
Aluminium + oxygen aluminium oxide (write)

heat
Zinc + oxygen zinc oxide (yellow [hot] & white [cold])

heat
Copper + oxygen copper oxygen (black)

 The products of the reaction different in colour and form.

 Some stable metals like gold, platinum and silver do not react with
oxygen.

 Reactive metals react quickly with oxygen.

Silicon Compounds
What is Silicon?
 Non-metallic element.

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 Solid element with a melting point of 1410 °C.

 Silica and silicates form about 90% of the Earth’s crust.
 Silicon is not found as a free element in nature.
 Silicon usually exists as a compound in the form of:
 Silica or silicon dioxide
 Sand, flinstone, quartz.

 When heated strongly in air, it forms silicon dioxide or silica.

heat
Silicon + oxygen silicon dioxide

 Silicate
 Clay, feldspar, asbestos, mica, topaz, jade, ruby and sodium
silicate.

 Silicate consists of a metal, silicon and oxygen.

 The silicon compounds are coloured and their colours depend

on the constituent metal in them.

Silicate Colour
Copper silicate Blue
Iron silicate Greenish-yellow
Nickel silicate Green
Manganese silicate Pink

 Characteristics of silica and silicate

 Stable.

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 Cannot be decomposed by heat.

 Cannot be dissolved in water (expect for sodium silicate)
 Cannot be dissolved in acids

Silica is acidic and dissolves in alkali to form a silicate salt.

heat
Silica + alkali silicate salt + water

Silicates do not react with alkalis.

Uses of Silicon Compounds

Silicon compound Uses

Silica (sand) For making glass, cement, concrete
and bricks
Clay For making cups, pots and bricks
Mica As insulators in electric irons
Asbestos As heat insulators and for making
firemen’s protective clothes
Silica gel For absorbing water (drying agent)
Sodium silicate For preserving eggs and making
varnish for furniture

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Coloured silicates As decorative precious stones

(ruby, topaz, jade)
Silicon (element) Pure silicon is used for making
electronic chips, which are used in
computers, calculators and digital
watches.
Quartz Used to produce glass and ottery

Calcium Compounds
 Calcium is a metallic element that is reactive.

 Calcium easily forms compounds with other elements.

 A calcium compound is a compound which contains calcium.

Calcium compound Elements present

Calcium oxide Calcium, oxygen
Calcium chloride Calcium, chloride
Calcium hydroxide Calcium, hydrogen, oxygen
Calcium carbonate Calcium, carbon, oxygen
Calcium nitrate Calcium nitrogen, oxygen

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Calcium sulphate Calcium, sulphur, oxygen

 The most plentiful calcium compound in Malaysia is calcium

carbonate. It is commonly known as limestone.

Properties of Calcium Carbonate

 Does not dissolve in water

 Reacts with a dilute acid to form a calcium salt, water and carbon
dioxide.

Calcium carbonate + acid calcium salt + water + carbon dioxide

 Calcium carbonate decomposes on strong heating to form calcium
oxide (quicklime) and carbon dioxide.

heat
Calcium carbonate calcium oxide + carbon dioxide

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Uses of Calcium Compounds

Calcium Uses
compound
Marble  For making table tops, statues and monuments
 For covering floors and walls
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 Janet Jong 2010

Limestone  For building roads

 For preparing quicklime and calcium caride
 For making cement and glass
 Used in the smelting of tin ore and iron ore
Quicklime  Used by farmers to lower the acidity of soil
 For preparing acetylene gas
 Used as a drying agent for alkaline gases (ammonia)
 For preparing slake lime
Slaked lime  For making white wash and mortar
 For making caustic soda (an ingredient in soap)
 For making soil more porous
 Used in water treatment plants to correct the acidity of
water and to make the sediments settle faster

Natural Fuel Resources & Their Importance

 Natural fuel resources which are used by human are natural gas,
petroleum, coal and timber wood.

 Natural gas, petroleum and coal are fossil fuel.

 Timber wood and logs are obtained from woody trees planted on
the surface of the Earth.

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1. Petroleum
i. Product of the decay of the remains of dead plants and animals buried at the
bottom of the sea bed millions of years ago.

ii. Crude petroleum is black in colour and is made up of various types of

hydrocarbons of different sizes and forms.

iii. The components of petroleum can be separated by factional distillation that

is distilling at different ranges of temperature.

iv. The lighter fraction will appear at the top of the column while the denser
fraction will come out at the lower part of the column.

v. The uses of petroleum fractions.

Fraction Temperature (°C) Uses

Petroleum gas <40 Fuel for cooking
Petrol 40-75 Fuel for vehicles
Naphtha 75-150 For making plastics and other petrol
chemicals
Kerosene 150-230 Fuel for jet engines
Diesel 230-250 Fuel for diesel engines of bus and lorry
Lubricating oil 250-300 Lubricants for engines and machines
Fuel oil 300-350 Fuel for ships and electric power stations
Paraffin >350 Candle
Bitumen >350 Surfacing roads

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2. Natural gas
i. Natural gas is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases usually mixed with petroleum
on top of the layer petroleum.

ii. Contents: methane and 10% of ethane, propane and butane.

iii. Natural gas is used as a raw material to produce petroleum chemicals and
fertilizers.

3. Coal
i. Formed from plants buried beneath layers of sediments of mud millions of
years ago.

ii. It is a source of carbon.

iii. Used as fuel in power stations to produce steam, constituent of adhesives,

paint, explosives and medicine.

iv. Coke is the remnants of coal heated without oxygen at a high temperature so
that all the volatile constituents of coal are driven off.

v. The residue is chiefly carbon with minor amounts of hydrogen, nitrogen,

sulpur and oxygen.

vi. Coke is used as an inexpensive source of carbon in industries for the

extraction of metals from their ores.

4. Wooden logs
i. Used as fuel in the form of fire wood and charcoal

ii. Firewood and charcoal are seldom used as fuel because they produce a lot of
smoke, sook and ash.

iii. Charcoal is used in the fireworks and the ink printing industries.

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