What is metallurgy

Metallurgy refers to the process and technology of extracting metals or metal compounds from ore and using various processing methods to make metals into metal materials with certain properties. The technology of metallurgy mainly includes pyrometallurgy,hydrometallurgy and electrometallurgy.

Pyrometallurgy means that part or all of the minerals in the ore or concentrate undergo a series of physical and chemical changes at high temperatures to generate another form of compound or element, which are respectively enriched in gas, liquid or solid products, so as to achieve the purpose of separating the extracted metal from gangue and other impurities.

Hydrometallurgy is a process in which the metal to be extracted enters the solution in the form of a certain ion (cation or complex anion), and after these impurities are removed from the solution, the metal is extracted from the purification solution by methods such as replacement, reduction, and electrowinning.

Electrometallurgy mainly has two aspects: electrothermal metallurgy and electrochemical metallurgy. Electrothermal metallurgy refers to the method of converting electric energy into heat energy for smelting. Electrochemical metallurgy mainly includes electrolysis and electrowinning: solution electrolysis makes metal from metal salt-containing solution or melting Precipitation in the body. It can be included in the category of hydrometallurgy; the latter is called molten salt electrolysis, which not only uses the chemical effect of electrical energy, but also uses electrical energy to convert it into heat, so as to heat the metal salt to make it a melt, so it can also be included in the fire method Metallurgical category.