• Mineral processing engineers have the responsibility of accepting ore mined from the earth, comminuting the ore until liberation occurs, and then removing the valuable minerals in the form of concentrates.
  • Extractive metallurgical engineers extract the valuable metals from the concentrates, remove impurities from the metals using aqueous or thermal chemistry, and then market the purified metal as a commodity.
  • Physical metallurgical engineers accept various purified metals and alloy them to control a number of characteristics including strength and corrosion resistance.
  • Materials engineers control the same characteristics but pertaining to plastics, composites, glasses, ceramics, etc.

    • Graduate research may be pursued in any of the following three areas of concentration:

    • Mineral Processing Engineering?deals with the extraction, separation, and concentration of minerals from raw ores.
    • Extractive Metallurgy?focuses on refining processes, such as pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and electrometallurgy, through which concentrates are refined into a pure metal form.
    • Materials Science?emphasizes the study of physical and chemical properties associated with metals, ceramics, glasses, plastics, and slag.