Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Metallurgy is a branch of engineering that deals with chemical and physical properties and behaviour of metallic elements, as well as alloys. Metallurgy is the science of separating ore minerals (valuable) that contain metals from rocks forming minerals (the waste). There are three major disciplines in the mining and minerals industry: Mineral Processing, Extractive Metallurgy and Physical Metallurgy.
Mineral Processing is the first stage in extracting metals from their ores. Engineers use a variety of physical and chemical procedures to separate, extract, and concentrate the valuable minerals found in ores. Some of the processes used include density separation, magnetic separation and flotation techniques.
Extractive Metallurgy includes a variety of techniques including thermal processing (pyrometallurgy), aqueous processing (hydrometallurgy) and electrolytic processing (electrometallurgy). These processes will transform metal oxide and sulphide minerals into pure metals.
Physical Metallurgy investigates the chemical, physical and mechanical qualities of various materials such as strength, corrosion resistance and ductility.
Metallurgists work closely with mineralogists to identify the optimum extraction method for a particular ore.
