Ores - Working with them

An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals such as gemstones and metals that can be extracted through mining and refined for use. Samples of ore in the form of exceptionally beautiful crystals, exotic layering visible when sectioned or polished or metallic presentations such as large nuggets or crystalline formations of metals such as gold or copper may command a value far beyond their value as mere ore or raw metal for subsequent reduction to utilitarian purposes.

The grade or concentration of an ore mineral, or metal, as well as its form of occurrence, will directly affect the costs associated with mining the ore. The cost of extraction must thus be weighted against the contained metal value of the rock to determine what ore can be profitably extracted and what ore is of too low a grade to be worth mining. Metal ores are generally oxides, sulfides, silicates, or "native" metals (such as native copper) that are not commonly concentrated in the Earth's crust or "noble" metals (not usually forming compounds) such as gold. The ores must be processed to extract the metals of interest from the waste rock and from the ore minerals. Ore bodies are formed by a variety of geological processes. The process of ore formation is called ore genesis.

An ore deposit is an accumulation of ore. This is distinct from a mineral resource as defined by the mineral resource classification criteria. An ore deposit is one occurrence of the particular ore type. Most ore deposits are named according to either their location, or after a discoverer, or after some whimsy, an historical figure, a prominent person, something from mythology.

The most common materials in Talibar are:

Iron
Tin
Lead
Copper
Mercury
Silver
Gold

The dwarves were famously first to discover the materials copper, and tin. It is commonly rumoured that they took these two materials and made bronze, a common metal in Talibar. It is also rumoured that they found most of the other ores as well. The discovery of Gromril also is one of the great finds of the Dwarves.