Pyrometallurgy

Pyrometallurgy is a process where heat is used to extract or purify metals from their ores or raw materials. It's like making food in the oven or cooking a cake. Just as you put raw materials in the oven, pyrometallurgy involves putting raw materials that contain metals into a furnace or kiln, which is like a big oven that can reach very high temperatures.

Once the furnace is hot, the raw materials melt, and the metal separates from the other materials. These other materials, called slag or waste, can float on top of the metal or sink to the bottom, depending on their density. Slag is like the burnt bits of food that you sometimes find in the bottom of the oven.

The metal is then collected and further processed to make it pure and useful. For example, iron ore can be heated to make iron, which can be used to make steel. Pyrometallurgy can also be used to refine precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and copper.

So, pyrometallurgy is like cooking metals in a hot oven to separate them from other materials and make them useful and pure.