matte
1
9.9
A melted mix of metal and sulfur that forms when metal ore is heated
- noun
- /mæt/
- Specialized
:
masa de sulfuros
- The factory produced matte containing significant amounts of iron and copper sulfides.
Examples
-
I laminated all of it together with acrylic soft gel and matte medium.
Blog text (23) -
We see Oswald at work on photo mattes with a Minox spy camera.
Fiction book (1991) -
The metallurgist used matte as a crucial intermediate in the extraction of copper.
-
During the smelting process, the matte is collected before the final refining takes place.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Matte (in smelting) comes from a French mining word matte for a heavy, matted mass of metal and sulfur that forms when ores are melted. Picture molten minerals sticking together into a dark 'mat' at the bottom of a furnace, and you see why that layer is called a matte.