Pyrometallurgy extracts a metal at high temperature, by reduction of its oxide in a furnace. Hydrometallurgy extracts it from an aqueous solution. Their usual steps are roasting (heating a sulfide ore in air to turn it into an oxide, ), leaching (dissolving the metal’s compound, often in sulfuric acid, ), purification of the solution, for instance by cementation (reduction of the ions of a nobler metal by a powder of a less noble one, ), and the recovery of the metal, often by electrolysis.
Chemistry · Glossary
What is Pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy?
Also known as: pyrometallurgy · hydrometallurgy · roasting · leaching · cementation