Metallurgy

Commercial extraction of metals from their ores is called metallurgy. Different methods are used for their extraction, depending on the nature of a metal and its ore.

• a. Pyrometallurgy: A process in which the ore is reduced to metal at high temperature using reducing agents like carbon, hydrogen, aluminium, etc. is called pyrometallurgy.
• b. Hydrometallurgy : The process of extracting metals from the aqueous solution of their salts using suitable reducing agents is called hydrometallurgy.
• c. Electrometallurgy : A process in which metal is extracted by electrolytic reduction of molten (fused) metallic compound is called electrometallurgy.

Steps Involved in Process of Extraction

Concentration : After mining the ore from the earth's crust, it is subjected to concentration. In this step, impurities termed as gangue are removed from the ore, and the ore gets concentrated. The sand, mud and other unwanted impurities which remain mixed with the ore deposit are called gangue. During the process of concentration, the ore is separated from the gangue material using different methods, such as washing, hydraulic classification, magnetic separation, froth floatation, etc. The method chosen for concentration depends upon the nature of the ore. …