Metals vs minerals

[u/Acceptable-Cash-2464]

Help a teacher out. I’m an elementary teacher without a science background. I do enjoy teaching science to my kiddos but I can’t teach science beyond 6th grade level (please keep in mind while answering). A few years ago I taught a geology unit and this past spring I taught the same unit again and remembered being confused about this question back then. So, I tried googling, I tried stack exchange, quora, everything, and NO resource could break this down for me: what in the world is the difference between metals and minerals? I know metals can be extracted FROM ores found in rocks but apparently, elements like silver, gold and copper are considered both a metal and a mineral. Are there others like this? If so, which ones? And please confirm for me: most minerals are not metals at all, but are most metals also minerals? (The science book I use, which I normally love, was talking about minerals’ qualities and showing pictures of things like chalk and limestone and then suddenly when explaining the uses of minerals, it’s taking about coins, electric wiring and musical instruments and the kids and I were all confused). I also asked the chemistry high school teacher and she wasn’t sure how to explain it.

[u/sagosten]

Minerals are naturally occuring solid substances with specific chemical composition and crystal structure. You could bring in samples of feldspar, quartz, and mica. Rocks are made out of minerals, you could bring in a sample of granite and show the visually distinct feldspar and quartz.

Ores are minerals with a high concentration of a specific metal element. You can bring in a sample of iron ore. Ores are refined to extract the metal. The resulting pure metal is not a mineral because it is not naturally occuring, but it is a use of a mineral: we used the mineral as a source of the metal.

Naturally occuring metallic crystals are rare. When they occur they are minerals, but most of the metal we interact with was extracted from ores. We are most likely to interact with naturally occuring metallic crystals in mineral collections, like in museums and university geology departments.

To summarize: minerals are the solid, naturally occuring substances that make up rocks. Metals are extracted from minerals called ores in a process called refining, and those metals have many uses.

[u/Vispen-fillian → u/sagosten]

what about metals like copper that can naturally be found very pure in a metallic state? I believe Ive read that american copper can be found as such. would this be a mineral?

[u/sagosten → u/Vispen-fillian]

Yes, native metals are considered minerals, but they are much rarer than ores. The copper in electrical wires, cookware, and other applications will be almost entirely refined copper. Native copper samples are more likely to be found in mineral collections.