Importance Of Acids And Bases In Mining

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In my essay, I am going to talk about acids and bases in the mining business. Acids and bases have many uses in this field, and are actually very important. First, I will talk about hydrochloric acid, and its use in the mining field. Second, I will talk about aqua regia (an acid). Lastly, I will talk about ammonia (a base).
In the mining field, hydrochloric acid can be used to clean ore and concentrates (a concentrate is the desirable metal along with undesired substances such as dirt, sand, or minerals). You want to do this because there are salts in the concentrates that make it impossible to recover the gold with mercury. When you use hydrochloric acid it reacts with these salts to make new salts that are soluble in water. The new salts, having been dissolved in water, can then just be poured out. You are then able to do whatever is was that those salts wouldn't allow you to do in the first place. Now, you can get hydrochloric acid at a hardware store, and it may be called “muriatic acid”. You should dilute this about 1 to 6 with water before using it.
Aqua Regia is a very strong ...

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