Metallurgy is a field of science that tackles the study of the physical and chemical attributes of a metallic substance along with their intermetallic compositions and components which are fused together. These fused components as known as alloys. Metallurgy is also known as the technology of how metals work and is commonly known as an applied science.

Human metallurgy was first applied back in the 5th and 6th millennium B.C. Its evidence of craft and metal work was found in Majdanpek, Yarmovac, Plocnik, and Serbia. The most common metallic substance that was crafted was copper and axes are just some of the earliest tools made from this metal which came from the people of Vincha. Some researches even say that the science of metallurgy even went as far as the 3rd millennium that was evident in Portugal and Spain. This was also found in the Stonehenge in United Kingdom. Even though the dates from which people have tried to delineate the accurate time when metallurgy started is inconsistent, one fact still remains: Metallurgy is a branch of science that had been used for thousands of years and it's still used today.

Middle East is a nation rich in resources. One of which is metal and there is a wide array of metals being mined and exported worldwide. Metals such as copper, lead, bronze silver, lead and gold are just some of the examples.

In ancient Egypt, The Egyptians have made use of metals such as silver, iron, copper and tin for military purposes. Metal was an essential resource from which swords, shields, spears, and chariots were yielded from. They said that their swords came from heaven because the metals that were used to yield these tools for combat originally came from meteoric iron that had fallen from the sky. Eventually, they have learned how to refine their metallic craft and they soon yielded copper and tin. They also learned that by fusing these two metals, they can produce a more durable form of metal called bronze.

Iron was successfully extracted from its ore by the Hittites back in 1200 B.C that started the Iron Age. The secret of how pure iron can be yielded from an iron ore made the success of the Philistines as well.

Metallurgy eventually has been refined overtime and is now widely used all over the world. Its early developments were found on early civilizations of Turkey, Ancient Nok, Greece, Rome, Europe, Middle East, Egypt and Asia.

There are many evidences that these metals were used in China to make useful materials even before the western countries have learned to refine their own metal crafts. Crafts like forging and mining metals, however were more advanced in countries like Rome. The Romans were advanced enough to make use of the law of hydraulics to mine metals more effectively before any other civilization.

Today, the art of metallurgy still continues to enable modern innovators to make use of metals in every application that we can possibly take advantage of. Metals are used for metal art, for building infrastructures, medical science and it is also used to manufacture the things we use at home.

Richard Dean F. Basa

What do we know about metallurgy? Metallurgy is that branch of science that deals with the procedures used when extracting metals from their ores, purifying and alloying them. This also involves the study of the procedures used when making objects out of metals. Yet, to be able to understand fully what metallurgy is all about, it would be better to have a short glimpse of the history of metallurgy.

One of the oldest processes of applied science is the process of metallurgy. Its history would give us a good view of how the process developed and its association with metals. The history of metallurgy can be dated back to 7,000 BC which is what they call the age of copper. It is the period between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age which could also be considered the turning point between Stone to Metal. The first process was purely accidental when the copper felt into a hot camp fire. Obviously, the copper melted and when it cooled people noticed the change of its shape. The development of the process was also contributed by the magic of the fire. We could learn from the history of metallurgy that people in the old days relied on the fire for the processes especially with metals.

In the 2800 BC comes the Bronze Age which is another development in metallurgy. People have become brilliant that they made an alloy of copper and tin since both was commonly found in the same ore. The result of which was bronze. Bronze has become a commodity was used for the weapons of the armies as well as used as money for trade. In the 1500 BC, another breakthrough was found in metallurgy. It is the discovery of iron which was considered the most abundant metal in the earth but was difficult to extract. By this then, in the 11th century, people pushed their luck and tried to heat the iron with charcoal in such a way that the carbon from the charcoal can be transferred to the iron. With this, the metal would be hardened and the Age of Steel came. Yet, iron has become a continuous challenge to most metallurgists since it's very hard which can only be hammered but can't be melted. In the 513 BC, Chinese were able to think of a furnace strong enough to heat iron.

Metals nowadays are a commodity. From the buildings, the houses, to the littlest tools we use everyday; the magic of metals is involved. Without them, everything wouldn't be that easy. Just think about the days of the Stone Age and you wouldn't want to live in this world.

One after another, metals have developed and evolved. Over the years, people never stopped adding bits to the history of metallurgy making way for the metals to be obviously useful and one of the most important things in our daily lives nowadays.

Metallurgy is the art and science that deals in extracting metals from their ores, alloying and getting the impurities of the metal and transform the metals to a more useful object. It is also the study of metals, its physical and chemical properties, the atomic structure and the process on how to combine to produce an alloy.

There are two phases to extract the metal from its ore; this includes mineral processing and process metallurgy. During the mineral processing, desired broken elements are extracted from the broken ore. The minerals are created to produce an alloy and metal to a more useful form during the metallurgy process.

Metallurgy is divided into two processes, the process metallurgy and the physical metallurgy. Process metallurgy includes the system metal processing while in physical metallurgy includes the mechanical behavior of the metals.

The process metallurgy uses the some method in chemical engineering in the construction of metals. There are two major steps in the production of metal. First is the production of a tainted metal from ore, and second is the refining of the metal.

Physical metallurgy is concerned with the scientific principle to the heat treatment, mechanical treatment, fabrication and service behavior of metals.

The process to extract the metal from the elements will depend upon the combination of the substance found in the ore and the elements of the metal to be remove. Since silver and gold is mercury soluble, mercury is used to extract silver and gold from other elements. The other way to extract the two compounds from other substance is by the treatment called cyanide process. To separate silver from lead elements, parkes process is being used. Chemical reactions are needed to separate metals from other elements

Electrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy are the classification of chemical process. Electrometallurgy used electrolysis to separate other elements from metal. Hydrometallurgy also called as leaching, uses selective suspension. And pyrometallurgy, uses heat treatment solution.