Leaching is the loss or extraction of certain materials from a carrier into a liquid (usually, but not always a solvent), and may refer to: *

Leaching (agriculture) In agriculture, leaching is the loss of water-soluble plant nutrients from the soil, due to rain and irrigation. Soil structure, crop planting, type and application rates of fertilizers, and other factors are taken into account to avoid excessive ...

, the loss of water-soluble plant nutrients from the soil; or applying a small amount of excess irrigation to avoid soil salinity *

Leaching (chemistry) Leaching is the process of a solute becoming detached or extracted from its carrier substance by way of a solvent. Leaching is a naturally occurring process which scientists have adapted for a variety of applications with a variety of methods. Sp ...

, the process of extracting substances from a solid by dissolving them in a liquid *

Leaching (metallurgy) Leaching is a process widely used in extractive metallurgy where ore is treated with chemicals to convert the valuable metals within into soluble salts while the impurity remains insoluble. These can then be washed out and processed to give the p ...

, a widely used extractive metallurgy technique which converts metals into soluble salts in aqueous media **

Dump leaching Dump leaching is an industrial process to extract precious metals and copper from ores.. Dump leaching is similar to heap leaching, however in the case of dump leaching ore is taken directly from the mine and stacked on the leach pad without crus ...

, an industrial process to extract metals from ore taken directly from the mine and stacked on the leach pad without crushing **

Heap leaching Heap leaching is an industrial mining process used to extract precious metals, copper, uranium, and other compounds from ore using a series of chemical reactions that absorb specific minerals and re-separate them after their division from other e ...

, an industrial process to extract metals from ore which has been crushed into small chunks **

Tank leaching In Metallurgy, metallurgical processes tank leaching is a Hydrometallurgy, hydrometallurgical method of extracting valuable material (usually metals) from ore. Tank vs. vat leaching Factors Tank leaching is usually differentiated from vat leaching ...

, a hydro metallurgical method of extracting valuable material from ore **

In-situ leaching In-situ leaching (ISL), also called in-situ recovery (ISR) or solution mining, is a mining process used to recover minerals such as copper and uranium through boreholes drilled into a deposit, ''in situ''. In situ leach works by artificially disso ...

, a process of recovering minerals such as copper and uranium through boreholes drilled into the deposit *

Leaching (pedology) In pedology, leaching is the removal of soluble materials from one zone in soil to another via water movement in the profile. It is a mechanism of soil formation distinct from the soil forming process of eluviation, which is the loss of mineral a ...

, the loss of mineral and organic solutes due to percolation from soil *

Bioleaching Bioleaching is the extraction of metals from their ores through the use of living organisms. This is much cleaner than the traditional heap leaching using cyanide. Bioleaching is one of several applications within biohydrometallurgy and several ...

, the extraction of specific metals from their ores through the use of bacteria and fungi

See also