It refers to the process and technique of extracting metals or metal compounds from minerals and using various processing methods to make metal materials with certain properties.

Metallurgy has a long history of development, from the Stone Age to the subsequent Bronze Age, and then to the large-scale development of modern steel smelting. The history of human development integrates the history of metallurgical development.

The metallurgical technology mainly includes pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and electrometallurgy. With the successful application of physical chemistry in metallurgy, metallurgy has moved from process to science, thus giving rise to the metallurgical engineering major in universities.