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Metals are taken from the rocks of an ore deposit using
chemistry. In processing ore to recover the metal of
interest, steps of the process can be divided into (a) the steps
to prepare the metal for separation from the rest of the rock or
other metals, and (b) steps to actually remove the metal from the
rock and unusable or uninteresting parts of the ore. The
type of reaction used to extract the metal in both steps depends
on the type of ore. That is, the chemical reaction to
produce the metal depends on the way the metal is combined with
other elements in the rock. The reactions used also change
with time as new, better methods for extracting the metal from
the rock to put it in a form usable to the consumer are
developed.
In Virginia City ores, the silver was most often combined with
sulfur to form a sulfide: Ag2S. However,
it also was found combined with other elements. The method
of preparing the metal of interest for removal from the rock had
to be able to break up the sulfide compound as well as other
compounds that might include the metal of interest.
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