Abstract
Pressure hydrometallurgy has allowed the processing of materials to intensify by removing the constraints of atmospheric temperature and pressure. The engineering, performance and cost effectiveness of high temperature and pressure reactors has continued to mature so that we now see applications across the base metals, light metals, precious metals and rare metals sectors. Pressure hydrometallurgy enables processes that are slow or incomplete at atmospheric conditions to proceed quickly completely. It is timely to consider the use of pressure hydrometallurgy to meet our modern challenges.