Once the ores have been mined
from the ground, they are crushed.
Then the metal must
be extracted from the ore.
As has
already been mentioned, we will restrict our studies of extraction to
extraction by reduction by carbon and electrolysis.
The next
question is which metals can be extracted by reduction by carbon
and which by electrolysis?
Those
metals that are relatively unreactive, those are less reactive than carbon
are extracted by reduction by carbon, while those that are more
reactive by electrolysis.