What are the correlations/differences between mineral processing and metal processing (metallurgy)?
In general, mineral processing includes all steps to convert a metal containing mineral into a pure metal, e.g. the reduction of TiO2 or FeTiO3 to titanium sponge (CP quality) during the Kroll, Hunter, FFC Cambridge … processes. So you start with an ore and finish with a metal (more or less pure).
In metallurgy you start working with a metal and perform all steps to be undertaken for (1) alloy production (e.g. mixing titanium sponge with alloying elements like aluminium, vanadium etc.) and (2) thermo-mechanical treatments (hot extrusion, rolling, forging, heat treatments …). After having completed all metallurgy steps you end up with a semi-finished product like bar, plate, sheet, tube …, typically having a defined microstructure and related properties.
Component manufacturing (e.g. by the different machining operations) does not belong to metallurgy anymore.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Engineering
- Materials Engineering
- Annealing
- Metallurgy