Pre-Engineering - Bachelor of Science - Metallurgical Engineering

The bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering trains students to apply technology in converting natural mineral resources into useful products for society. The metallurgical engineering major covers three areas:

• Mineral processing: The engineer takes advantage of differences in physical and/or chemical properties to develop, manage and control processes for liberating, separating and concentrating valuable minerals or metals from ores.
• Extractive metallurgy: The engineer produces and purifies metals from concentrates and ores, plus metal recycling using hydrometallurgy (aqueous processing), bio-hydrometallurgy, electrometallurgy (electrochemical processing) and pyrometallurgy (high-temperature processing).
• Physical metallurgy: The engineer processes metals into products by various means, such as casting, forging, extrusion and powder techniques. They control engineering properties of metals, such as strength, hardness and fatigue, by alloying, annealing and heat treatment.

In order to learn to process and extract ores to concentrate, then refine their valuable components, students will take courses in advanced chemistry; metallurgical process, modeling and control; pyrometallurgy, and hydrometallurgy. Graduates will be ready to work in industry, research and management or go on to further study in graduate school.

All students who are entering into Business, Graphic Design, Engineering, and Journalism are required to begin their studies at the University of Nevada, Reno as a pre-major. Updates and progression to the upper level division and major declaration will happen during program study.