- Dressing is the first step in extraction of metals.
- Ores that are mined from earth are usually contaminated with impurities such as soil and sand etc.
- Dressing means, simply getting rid of as much of the unwanted rocky material as possible before the ore is converted into the metal.
- Physical methods are used to enrich the ore.
- These methods adopted in dressing the ore depends upon difference between physical properties of ore and gangue.
- The following physical methods are involved in dressing are : 1) Hand picking,
- Washing, 3) Froth floatation, 4) Magnetic separation.