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Smelting Refining

Smelting refining is the process that is used when metal ores are either crushed, or as a whole are put in very high temperatures and either using the heat process or the heat vapours, will reduce the ore into a liquid that when cooled, forms the hard metals we are used to seeing every day of our lives. The smelting process depends on the metal involved, and the purity of the metals as well. Some metals require a very high heat, while others require a lower heat relatively speaking.

The smelting process has come under fire recently due to the high toxic gasses it releases into the atmosphere, and many companies have had to come up with unique concepts to contain these gasses and somehow try and neutralise them. It is also an expensive procedure, and extremely dangerous, and the companies are under pressure to try and produce enough metals at a cost-effective price while still making a profit.

The smelters are huge pots that are subjected to intense heat, and mixed with often volatile gasses; this can cause an explosive result. Many accidents have recently happened at various companies, and a safety advisory committee are looking at other ways that the ore could be processed or smelted. Methods that are increasingly being looked at would be the chemical processing of the metal, but this would probably cause more gasses to be released into the atmosphere. As we continue to put our lives at risk, being it at the smelter or at the risk of destroying our atmosphere, scientists are trying their utmost best to produce results that would be safer for the workers as well as safer for our environment.

Smelting refining companies are often at the forefront of technology when it comes to the processing of metals, and considering how far we have come compared to primitive man putting a piece of bronze in a fire and seeing how it heated up, we have really mastered the process of smelting to a fine art.

The purity of the metals alone can be marvelled at, and compared to that first metal object's purity that was smelted and shaped many years ago, the levels of purity would have been incomprehensible.

As this first object was smelted and a new age of man dawned, so today do we have to bring about a new age by looking after our planet's future.

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