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Grade upto college level Physical Chemistry

Why is the extraction of copper from its pyrite difficult than that from its oxide through reduction?

Profile image of aditya kashyap
12 Years agoGrade upto college level
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Profile image of Gaurav
11 Years ago
Hello Student
In general, sulfide minerals are more stable compounds than oxide minerals. Therefore, it is harder to breakdown the chemical bonds in sulfide minerals as compare to in oxide mineral. Oxide ores can simply be reduced by heating them with coal. For sulfide ores, they are first converted into oxide form followed by reduction with coal