Smelting

Smelting is the high-temperature process that extracts metal from ore or concentrate by separating it from the rock and other elements it is bound to.

Smelting applies intense heat, often alongside chemical reactions, to break the bond between a metal and the rock or other elements holding it in ore or concentrate. The output is a much purer, but not yet perfectly pure, metal, which typically goes on to further refining before it meets the purity a market demands.

Smelting is energy-intensive and capital-intensive, which is why it concentrates in a small number of locations even when the ore or concentrate feeding it is mined across many countries. A mine and its nearest smelter are often in different countries entirely, connected by shipping rather than a single integrated site. Smelter capacity, not mine output alone, is frequently the bottleneck that determines how much refined metal can reach the market, and the fee smelters charge for the service is the treatment charge.