Heap leaching is an
industrial mining process to extract
precious metals,
copper,
uranium, and other compounds from
ore via a series of chemical reactions that absorb specific minerals and then re-separates them after their division from other earth materials. Similar to
in situ mining, heap leach mining differs in that it places ore on a liner, then adds the chemicals via drip systems to the ore, whereas
in situ mining lacks these liners and pulls pregnant solution up to obtain the minerals.