Calamine is ore of which metal?

Concept

An ore is a naturally occurring mineral from which a metal can be economically extracted. Many ores carry traditional or historical names that correspond to a specific chemical compound of one particular metal - carbonates, sulphides, oxides, or silicates - so identifying an ore's parent metal means identifying that compound.

Application

Calamine is the traditional name for zinc carbonate (ZnCO3), one of the two chief ores of zinc - the other being zinc blende (zinc sulphide, ZnS, also called sphalerite). Both minerals are compounds of zinc, so calamine is classified as an ore of zinc.

Contrast with the other options

• Magnesium's ores are magnesite (MgCO3) and dolomite - carbonates of magnesium, chemically distinct from calamine.

• Copper's ores are copper pyrites (CuFeS2) and copper glance - sulphide minerals of copper, unrelated to calamine's composition.

• Iron's ores are haematite (Fe2O3) and magnetite (Fe3O4) - oxide minerals of iron, again a different compound from calamine.

Since calamine's chemical formula (ZnCO3) matches zinc carbonate specifically, Zinc is the metal that calamine is an ore of.