Ores

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This term is applied to any form in whicli metals occur naturally and from which the) can be extracted by subsequent metallurgic processes. Metals are always found in one oj the following states: either pure as native metals or combined with others forming natural alloys ; combined with sulphur, forming sulphurets or sulphides; in combination with oxygen producing oxyds, or with acids forming metallic salts, as carbonates, sulphates, phosphates and numerous others. The are found in lodes or veins, which are cracks in rocks filled up with ore, or in beds, where the ore takes a place in the strata of the country as a regular geological deposit. Sometimes the more precious metals are found in streams, to which they have beer brought by the water breaking off pieces 0] the parent vein and carrying these down the current, gradually rounding off the sharr angles and breaking them up into powder, as found in the gold fields of California and Australia. In some situations gold has been founc in a fibrous condition.

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