liquation

liquation, technique for separating constituents of an ore, a metal, or an alloy by partial melting. When the material is heated to a temperature where one of the constituents melts and the other remains solid, the liquid constituent can be drained off. It was formerly used for extracting antimony minerals from ore and for separating silver from copper with the use of lead as a solvent. It is still used in some refining of tin.