the.com/smelting
Bullying rocks until they confess the metal they've been hiding.
means Heating ore hot enough to chemically extract pure metal from the stubborn minerals around it.
from From Middle Low German and Dutch smelten, meaning to melt or dissolve — first cousin to the modern word melt, though smelting does far more than soften.
More than meltingChemistry, not just heat — oxygen gets stripped out.
Bronze Age triggerSmelting copper and tin literally renamed an era.
Carbon's jobCharcoal steals oxygen from ore, freeing the metal.
Slag wasteThe leftover rock floats off as molten garbage.