# Zinc is a metal that can be extracted from zinc oxide by heating it with carbon. Explain why zinc can be extracted using carbon, but magnesium cannot be extracted from magnesium oxide in the same way.

> Eduqas GCSE Chemistry — 2.3 Metals and their extraction · Explain · 4 marks

> Zinc oxide can be reduced to zinc by heating with carbon. Magnesium is higher in the reactivity series than both zinc and carbon.

## Mark scheme (4 marks)

1. Carbon can only displace/reduce metals that are less reactive than carbon itself
2. Zinc is less reactive than carbon, so carbon displaces/reduces zinc from zinc oxide
3. Magnesium is more reactive than carbon
4. Therefore carbon cannot displace/reduce magnesium from magnesium oxide, so a different method (e.g. electrolysis) is needed

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