Metallurgy refers to the process and technology of extracting metals or metal compounds from minerals and making metals into metal materials with certain properties by various processing methods. 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 iron and steel smelting. The history of human development combines the development history of metallurgy. Metallurgical technology mainly includes pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy and electrometallurgy. With the successful application of physical chemistry in metallurgy, metallurgy has moved from technology to science, so there is the major of Metallurgical Engineering in the University.

Geological exploration, processing and processing of nonferrous metals. With the development of science and technology, advanced physical and chemical technologies have been continuously applied to the innovation of non-ferrous metallurgy technology, which has made new progress in non-ferrous metallurgy technology. Pyrometallurgy has been phased out because of its many shortcomings; At present, most non-ferrous metallurgical enterprises and research teams mainly focus on hydrometallurgy and electro metallurgy for production and research.

The continuous innovation of non-ferrous metallurgy technology is facing many challenges. Non ferrous metallurgy is developing towards green environmental protection, the utilization of marine resources and the development of metal substitutes; However, the contradiction between industrial development and environmental protection, the technical difficulty in the utilization of marine resources and the high R & D and production costs of metal substitutes have not been solved effectively.

Considering many influencing factors, compared with the above research direction, the research prospect of secondary resource recovery and reuse is broad; If the research and development results of the early laboratory are applied to the later production line, it will be another major breakthrough in non-ferrous metallurgy technology.