hydrometallurgy

American  

[hahy-druh-met-l-ur-jee] / ˌhaɪ drəˈmɛt lˌɜr dʒi /

noun

1. the technique or process of extracting metals at ordinary temperatures by leaching ore with liquid solvents.

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hydrometallurgy British  

/ -mɛˈtælədʒɪ, ˌhaɪdrəʊˈmɛtəˌlɜːdʒɪ /

noun

1. a technique for the recovery of a metal from an aqueous medium in which the metal or the gangue is preferentially dissolved

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Other Word Forms

• hydrometallurgical
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of hydrometallurgy

First recorded in 1885–90; hydro- ¹ + metallurgy

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hydrometallurgy

“But then if we had to operate using traditional acids or bases and generate waste, we’d be back where hydrometallurgy is at right now.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026

In traditional hydrometallurgy, all the metals in an EV battery cell are dissolved in an inorganic acid.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2023

Nlebedim and colleagues have developed an alternative, acid-free approach to hydrometallurgy for recovering rare-earth elements in the permanent magnets that are commonly found in hard drives and motors5.

From Scientific American ● Dec. 21, 2022

Using a method called hydrometallurgy, the team are using water-based acid solutions to salvage e-waste’s precious metals for art.

From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2022

When the metal is not in the form of nuggets, it often useful to employ a process called hydrometallurgy to separate silver from its ores.

From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019