Introduction

Metallurgy is the branch of science and technology concerned with metals -- how they occur in nature, how pure metal is extracted from that natural source, and how the extracted metal is refined and put to use.

Extracting metals from their natural sources is as old as human civilisation itself. Early humans were limited to whatever metals occurred on the earth's surface and to whatever heat (fire) they could generate to work them; over thousands of years of accumulated metallurgical knowledge, humanity has progressed to using a very wide range of metals and metal alloys, engineered for specific properties, in virtually every walk of modern life. Because extraction and refining consume energy and generate waste, a live concern in modern metallurgy is designing eco-friendly processes that minimise waste and maximise energy efficiency -- advances of this kind are vital to a country's economic and technical progress.