Preamble


Materials and heat balance of metal extraction processes constitute a very important exercise to know the flow of materials and energy and to identify the amount of wastes produced and energy consumed. Productions of metals from natural reserves are associated with waste production and energy consumption.

In the future the consumption of metals is bound to increase particularly in India in order to improve its infrastructure and standard of living of its people. An assessment of metal production processes is called for in order to optimize the material and energy consumption to conserve the natural resources of metals and energy. The present course on materials and heat balance is developed to keep in mind the energy and environment issues related to metal extraction processes.

For this purpose several problems are discussed and the results are analyzed. The fundamentals of extraction processes are discussed to the extent of their utility in problem solving. Reader may go through the references given for the detailed description.