A wide diversity of physical and chemical processes are included in this term, which often is given as mineral dressing, ore dressing, or beneficiation.

Ore processing covers all the means that regulate the size of a substance, remove unwanted constituents, and improve the quality, purity, or assay grade of a commercial product: for ores, it also involves concentrating or otherwise preparing them for smelting, by drying, flotation, or magnetic separation