Liquation (metallurgy)

Liquation separates metals or alloys by heating them until a lower-melting constituent becomes liquid while higher-melting material remains largely solid.

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Eutectic system: An alloy system in which a particular composition melts and solidifies at a temperature lower than that of its components. Eutectic compositions can begin melting below the melting points of either constituent.
Bismuth: A brittle, silvery-white chemical element with symbol Bi and atomic number 83. Its comparatively low melting point enabled separation from higher-melting metals by liquation.
Metallurgy: The science and technology of extracting metals from ores and shaping or modifying them. Liquation is one of the thermal separation methods within this broader practice.
Fire refining: The purification of metals through high-temperature treatments involving oxidation or other chemical reactions. Both processes use heat, but fire refining separates through chemical reactions rather than melting-point differences alone.
Melting point: The temperature at which a substance changes from solid to liquid at a specified pressure. Liquation depends on a difference in melting temperatures between the material fractions.
Lead: A dense, soft metal with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead could be melted out of silver-bearing copper alloys during historical liquation.
Silver mining: The extraction of silver from mineral deposits and silver-bearing materials. Liquation became a way to recover silver from copper-rich materials.
Zone melting: A purification method that moves a narrow molten zone through a solid to concentrate impurities. Both exploit partitioning between liquid and solid, but zone melting advances a controlled molten zone.
Phase diagram: A chart showing which phases are stable at different temperatures, pressures, and compositions. It identifies temperatures at which a liquid fraction appears while another phase remains solid.
Silver: A lustrous, conductive metal with symbol Ag and atomic number 47. Liquation helped concentrate silver by separating it from copper in suitable alloys.