Extractive Metallurgy 3 Processing Operations and Routes

Extractive metallurgy is the art of extracting metals from their ores and refining them. This book deals with the processes, operations, technologies and processing routes of extractive metallurgy, i.e. the (production) extraction of metals from ores, concentrates (enriched ores), scraps and other sources and their refining to liquid metals before casting or to solid metals. In many books dealing with metallurgy, the introduction starts by recalling the steps of the progress of metallurgy. These steps, according to and since Lucrèce, are identical to those of human progress: the copper age, the bronze age, the iron age, the silicon age1. According to Mohen2, the considerable role attributed to the three principal metals in the development of human societies must not be overstressed or overvalued. It is nonetheless true that “metallurgy is the most advanced prehistoric manifestation of the mastery of natural resources” (Mohen). Extracting copper from its ore dates back to the middle of the fifth millennium before our age and extracting iron from its ore dates from the beginning of the second millennium before our age. The winning (production) of metals and alloys today is still one of the basic industries of the transformation of matter. Metals and alloys still are essential resources for metallic, mechanic, electromagnetic, electric and even electronic industries (silicon is treated as a metal).