Im confused about the extractions of metals from their ores.???

Question

Can all metals below carbon in the reactivity series be extracted by it??? Because in my science book it says that less reactive metals such as silver copper and lead get extracted by air. E.g. lead sulfide + oxygen -> lead oxide + sulfur dioxide. Bt then it also says that ones below carbon get extracted by carbon so y is it saying that those metals get extracted by air?
Then it had lead getting extracted by carbon as well :S whats extracted by what!!??? Im so confused...

Answer 1

Its simple really...............asu should be knowing the Reactivity Series is divided into:
1) low reactive metals
2) moderately reactive metals
3) highly reactive metals

Low Reactive Metals:
The low reactive metals are so inactive that most of them only combine with oxygen in air............when that happens they form Oxides which are heated to get the pure metal.
Ex) HgS + O2 + Hg2O + S
Hg2O + heat = Hg + O2

Moderately Reactive Metals:
These are the ones in the middle of the Reactivity Series (RS)
These metals can also be oxidised like before or they can be Carbonised with Carbon. When Sulphide ores take place in a reaction between a gas and a solid ore its called Roasting. When Carbonate ores are heated at or above the thermal decomposition temp or transition temperature its called Calcination.(hope ur not confused by roasting and calcination :)

Ex) Carbonisation = Pb2O3 + C = Pb + CO2
Roasting = 2ZnS + 3O2 → 2ZnO + 2SO2
Calcination = CaCO3 = CaO + CO2


Highly Reactive Metals:
These metals are so reactive that you need to use special methods to extract them from the ore like Electrolytic Reduction etc......Ex) Al, Na, K etc.....

there might be a few minor mistakes with one or two..........but the facts and the main essence is correct.

Answer 2

Life is more complicated than that, because you are showing chemical reactions, not the process involved.
The oxygen can come from various sources and not just air and it may not come off without heat.
If an ore is combined with chemicals that are higher on the electronic potential, the higher will grab the lower, so O will pull S off of PbS and replace it. Then, to get Lead, you will need to pull the O off and one way to do this would be to react it with carbon, where the C pulls the O off to make CO and CO2, leaving the lead behind.
That would explain why it says one thing in one place and apparently another thing in another. Without seeing the book, I can't get more detailed than that.

Answer 3

There is nothing to be confused.All metals below carbon can be extracted through redox rection using carbon.However, unreactive metals( such as lead & silver) have properties such that they can be reduced from their ores by thermal decomposition( strongly heating it) without the help of carbon.Thus, unreactive metals are not extracted using carbon to save cost( furthermore,there is no neccesity for it).

Answer 4

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