Can anyone tell me what exactly a "ferrous" and a "non-ferrous" mineral are?

My text-book says that a metallic mineral which "contains iron" is a ferrous mineral. What exactly does one mean by "contains iron"? Does it mean that iron is generally found along with the mineral as gangue? Examples of ferrous minerals that are given are "iron ore, manganese ore, chromite, pyrite, tungsten, nickel and cobalt" and those of non-ferrous minerals are "gold, silver, copper, lead, bauxite, tin, magnesium".

Thanks.

Nice to see your system seems to be back on Harish!

Technically ferrous not only specifically refers to Iron compounds, but only Iron II compounds, which produce the ion Fe2+. The other type of iron compounds III are named ferric, producing FE3+ ions. However, (it's a bit too late to phone my Father whose family were in the metal/jewellery trade) I think the use you are giving is more of a business use rather a scientific one, as tin, nickel etc. are elements, and thus can't contain any iron or anything else. Mixtures containing iron plus another metal are non-technically also ferrous, as that means 'containing iron' as well, in any sense, but those would be alloys. I'm sure the alternative explanation will be forthcoming as well, as it's the industrial usage of the word that's caused the confusion which I'm not familiar with.

*eyes glazing over* why can't you ask for song lyrics like everyone else, Harish?

So it is nothing to do with an amusement park? A ferrous-wheel?


Insert "groan" here ------> ___________

I always thought minerals containing Cr, Fe, Ni or Co are ferrous and this probably has to do with their magnetic properties.

I'm not 100% sure on this one.

The term pyrites does extend to all similar sulphides and arsenides, including copper. From a collector's point of view, pyrites are collected for their appearance, as all have similar looking spectacular bright crystals so look good on display.
The actual meaning of pyrites relates to not the composition, but the shape of the crystal, being (this bit's out of the dictionary, I didn't know it!) a pentagonal dodecahedron.
The only other 'ferrous' item I know is that ferrous metals are the cheaper type of scrap metal, and metal detectors frequently are set up to reject them to save you digging up old rubbish. Mine rises in pitch for them, but lowers for all others, so it is something measurable.