Extraction of Metals

Key Stage 3

Extraction of Metals is how we get usable metal from ore found in the ground.

There are 3 main processes for the extraction of metals:

None - Elements below Hydrogen are found Native which means the metal element can be found not as part of a compound.
Smelting - Elements above Hydrogen but below Carbon are found in metal compounds so they need to be extracted by using Carbon to displace the metal from the compound.
Electrolysis - Elements above Carbon are found in metal compounds but they cannot be extracted with Carbon because Carbon is less reactive than those metals so we use electrolysis to extract them.