The branch of metallurgy that uses electrical current to extract, refine, or process metals from ores or other sources.
From electro- + metallurgy (Greek 'metallon' + 'ergon'). Developed as a scientific discipline in the 1800s when scientists discovered that electrolysis could separate metals from compounds.
Electrometallurgy is why aluminum went from being rarer than gold in the 1880s to cheaper than copper by 1900—Hall and Héroult independently invented the electrolytic process that changed everything.
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