leaching

Scientific  

/ lē′chĭng /

1. The removal of soluble material from a substance, such as soil or rock, through the percolation of water. Organic matter is typically removed from a soil horizon and soluble metals or salts from a rock by leaching. Leaching differs from eluviation in that it affects soluble, not suspended, material and often results in the complete removal of the material from the soil or rock.

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Example Sentences

Audience trust is leaching away fast and Brits are increasingly refusing to pay up.

From The Wall Street Journal

That makes them significantly better at leaching copper from ore than conventional methods using acids, which often only capture up to half of the metal contained in the rock, she said.

From The Wall Street Journal

This unusual imbalance suggested that liquid water had once seeped through the rocks, effectively leaching lutetium out of them.

From Science Daily

Regular tests show surface water in the Faughan is not affected, but groundwater under the landfill is polluted and the aim is to prevent this leaching into the river.

From BBC

With rare earths, it's not so much about the mining footprint, rather the processing that is a dirty business – because it involves extraction, leaching, thermal cracking and refining which produce radioactive components.

From BBC