A professional who originates, controls, and develops flotation, smelting, electrolytic, and other processes used in winning metals from their ores, for producing iron and steel, or for refining gold, silver, zinc, copper, and other metals. Responsibilities include:

• Studies ore reduction problems to determine most efficient methods of producing metals commercially.
• Controls temperature adjustments, charge mixtures, and other variables in blast-furnace operations and steel-melting furnaces to obtain pig iron and steel of specified metallurgical characteristics and qualities.
• Investigates methods of improving metallurgical processes, as in the reduction of alumina by electrolytic methods to produce aluminum, the distillation of molten ore to purify zinc, or selective oxidation methods to extract lead, nickel, mercury, and other nonferrous metals from their ores.