Metal vs. Mineral

Main Difference

The main difference between Metal and Mineral is that the Metal is a element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat and Mineral is a naturally occurring usually inorganic substance that has a (more or less) definite chemical composition and a crystal structure

• Metal

  A metal (from Greek μέταλλον métallon, “mine, quarry, metal”) is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typically malleable (they can be hammered into thin sheets) or ductile (can be drawn into wires). A metal may be a chemical element such as iron, or an alloy such as stainless steel.

  In physics, a metal is generally regarded as any substance capable of conducting electricity at a temperature of absolute zero. Many elements and compounds that are not normally classified as metals become metallic under high pressures. For example, the nonmetal iodine gradually becomes a metal at a pressure of between 40 and 170 thousand times atmospheric pressure. Equally, some materials regarded as metals can become nonmetals. Sodium, for example, becomes a nonmetal at pressure of just under two million times atmospheric pressure.

  In chemistry, two elements that would otherwise qualify (in physics) as brittle metals—arsenic and antimony—are commonly instead recognised as metalloids, on account of their predominately non-metallic chemistry. Around 95 of the 118 elements in the periodic table are metals (or are likely to be such). The number is inexact as the boundaries between metals, nonmetals, and metalloids fluctuate slightly due to a lack of universally accepted definitions of the categories involved.

  In astrophysics the term “metal” is cast more widely to refer to all chemical elements in a star that are heavier than the lightest two, hydrogen and helium, and not just traditional metals. A star fuses lighter atoms, mostly hydrogen and helium, into heavier atoms over its lifetime. Used in that sense, the metallicity of an astronomical object is the proportion of its matter made up of the heavier chemical elements.Metals comprise 25% of the Earth’s crust and are present in many aspects of modern life. The strength and resilience of some metals has led to their frequent use in, for example, high-rise building and bridge construction, as well as most vehicles, many home appliances, tools, pipes, and railroad tracks. Precious metals were historically used as coinage, but in the modern era, coinage metals have extended to at least 23 of the chemical elements.The history of metals is thought to begin with the use of copper about 11,000 years ago. Gold, silver, iron (as meteoric iron), lead, and brass were likewise in use before the first known appearance of bronze in the 5th millennium BCE. Subsequent developments include the production of early forms of steel; the discovery of sodium—the first light metal—in 1809; the rise of modern alloy steels; and, since the end of World War II, the development of more sophisticated alloys.

• Mineral

  A mineral is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound that occurs naturally in pure form. Minerals are most commonly associated with rocks due to the presence of minerals within rocks. These rocks may consist of one type of mineral, or may be an aggregate of two or more different types of minerals, spacially segregated into distinct phases. Compounds that occur only in living beings are usually excluded, but some minerals are often biogenic (such as calcite) or are organic compounds in the sense of chemistry (such as mellite). Moreover, living beings often synthesize inorganic minerals (such as hydroxylapatite) that also occur in rocks.

  In geology and mineralogy, the term “mineral” is usually reserved for mineral species: crystalline compounds with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure. Some natural solid substances without a definite crystalline structure, such as opal or obsidian, are then more properly called mineraloids. If a chemical compound may occur naturally with different crystal structures, each structure is considered different mineral species. Thus, for example, quartz and stishovite are two different minerals consisting of the same compound, silicon dioxide.

  The International Mineralogical Association (IMA) is the world’s premier standard body for the definition and nomenclature of mineral species. As of March 2020, the IMA recognizes 5,562 official mineral species out of more than 5,750 proposed or traditional ones.The chemical composition of a named mineral species may vary somewhat by the inclusion of small amounts of impurities. Specific varieties of a species sometimes have conventional or official names of their own. For example, amethyst is a purple variety of the mineral species quartz. Some mineral species can have variable proportions of two or more chemical elements that occupy equivalent positions in the mineral’s structure; for example, the formula of mackinawite is given as (Fe,Ni)9S8, meaning FexNi9-xS8, where x is a variable number between 0 and 9. Sometimes a mineral with variable composition is split into separate species, more or less arbitrarily, forming a mineral group; that is the case of the silicates CaxMgyFe2-x-ySiO4, the olivine group.

  Besides the essential chemical composition and crystal structure, the description of a mineral species usually includes its common physical properties such as habit, hardness, lustre, diaphaneity, colour, streak, tenacity, cleavage, fracture, parting, specific gravity, magnetism, fluorescence, radioactivity, as well as its taste or smell and its reaction to acid.

  Minerals are classified by key chemical constituents; the two dominant systems are the Dana classification and the Strunz classification. Silicate minerals comprise approximately 90% of the Earth’s crust. Other important mineral groups include the native elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, and phosphates.

• Metal (noun)

  a solid material which is typically hard, shiny, malleable, fusible, and ductile, with good electrical and thermal conductivity (e.g. iron, gold, silver, and aluminium, and alloys such as steel)

  “being a metal, aluminium readily conducts heat”

  “an adjustable pole made of metal”

• Metal (noun)

  the steel tracks of a railway

  “the locomotive is presently being made ready for operation over Network SouthEast metals”

• Metal (noun)

  gold and silver (as tinctures in blazoning).

• Metal (noun)

  broken stone for use in making roads

  “the work also involves dealing with rock aggregates for potential use as suitable road metal”

• Metal (noun)

  molten glass before it is blown or cast.

• Metal (noun)

  heavy metal or similar rock music

  “crunching power-trio metal”

  “industrial music is also a blend of metal and techno”

• Metal (verb)

  made from or coated with metal

  “a range of metalled key rings”

• Metal (verb)

  make or mend (a road) with road metal

  “the road was metalled and tolls charged for the upkeep”

  “follow the metalled road for about 200 yards”