Q.Differentiate between "minerals" and "ores".

Minerals are the natural chemical forms in which elements occur in rocks (e.g. clay is a mineral of aluminium, but extracting Al from it is not economical). Ores are minerals that contain a high enough proportion of a metal, in an extractable/economical form, to be commercially worked (e.g. bauxite is an ore of aluminium). …

Step 1 – Definition of a mineral

A mineral is any naturally occurring, inorganic substance found in the earth's crust, possessing a characteristic (definite or a range of) chemical composition and (usually) a definite internal crystal structure. Minerals are simply the natural chemical/physical forms in which elements occur combined with other elements in rocks.

Step 2 – Definition of an ore

An ore is a mineral (or a mixture of minerals) from which a metal can be extracted conveniently, and with reasonable profit, using presently available technology. The key extra requirement over "mineral" is economic and technical viability of extraction.

Step 3 – The relationship between the two

Every ore is necessarily a mineral (since it must be a naturally occurring inorganic substance), but not every mineral that contains a metal is automatically an ore — many minerals contain a given metal only in low concentration, or in a form that is currently too difficult/expensive to extract profitably, so they remain "just" minerals rather than commercial ores.

Step 4 – Example …

State both definitions precisely, then make the logical relationship explicit (ore ⊂ mineral) and support it with …

• Using the two terms interchangeably — the distinction (economic/technical extractability) is exactly what the question is testing. …