Metals, Minerals, Ores : Properties, Uses Part-1

There are two types of street light lamps which are used by municipalities. They are sodium vapor and mercury vapor lamps. The mercury vapor lamps have usually a white ambient light and sodium vapor lamps have orange/yellow light. Compared to LPS (Low-pressure sodium) lamps, high-pressure sodium lamps tend to have a longer life, less lumen per watt efficiency, and most importantly a higher colour rendering index.

A sodium-vapor lamp is a gas-discharge lamp that uses sodium in an excited state to produce light. Low-pressure sodium lamps only give monochromatic yellow light and so inhibit colour vision at night and will not split through water droplets. Sodium-vapor lamps cause less light pollution than mercury-vapor lamps.

Among the given metals, gold is the least reactive, so this was accessed in the native (free) state. The term "native state" refers to metals found in their pure, uncombined form in nature, rather than as part of a compound (like an ore). This typically applies to less reactive metals. Only metals like gold, silver, and platinum occur in native state in nature in large amounts.

A noble metal is ordinarily regarded as a metallic chemical element that is generally resistant to corrosion and is usually found in nature in its raw form. Gold, platinum, and other platinum group metals (ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium) are most often so classified. Silver, copper, and mercury are sometimes included as noble metals, however less often as each of these usually occurs in nature combined with sulfur. Uranium and lead are not examples of noble metals.

Gold is unaffected in air, water, alkali halogen and all acids except Aqua regia (a mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid in 3:1 ratio). The name Aqua-regia was coined by chemists because of its ability to dissolve gold, "the king of metals". It is a mixture of acids, a fuming yellow or red solution.

It is an extension of the older carat (Karat in American spelling) system of denoting the purity of gold by fractions of 24, such as "18 carat" for an alloy with 75% (18 parts per 24) pure gold by mass. Because of the softness of pure (24 carat) gold, it is usually alloyed with base metals for use in jewellery, altering its hardness and ductility, melting point, colour, and other properties.

In its most basic form, white metal is an alloy of lead and lithium, or other metals like cadmium, bismuth, and zinc. The term 'white metals' is generally used to describe a series of metal alloys with decorative bright and are mostly used as a base for plated silverware, ornaments, or novelties. The term is also used in the antiques trade for an item suspected of being silver, but not hallmarked. It is to be noted that platinum is a naturally occurring white metal.

According to Geologists, minerals are naturally occurring inorganic substances with a definite and predictable chemical composition and physical properties.

Ilmenite (FeTiO₃) is a titanium-iron oxide mineral. It is the most important ore of titanium.

India has significant deposits of ilmenite along its coastline, particularly in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha. These beach sand deposits are a major source for the extraction of titanium and titanium dioxide (TiO₂), which is used in paints, plastics, and various other industries.

Therefore, Ilmenite is a mineral of Titanium.