Hydrometallurgy is a variant of extractive metallurgy that processes ores towards metals by aqueous (water-based) chemistry. Depending on their composition ores are treated by leaching, enrichment/concentration, and conversion to metal. The last step can take the form of electrowinning (e.g., copper, zinc), precipitation, or crystallization, the latter two producing metal compounds, not metal.

When it comes to conversion to elemental metal, electrowinning is limited to metals that will plate out at voltages less than what will decompose water. In other words, aqueous electrochemistry is bounded by the voltage that produces hydrogen and oxygen. His means that metals that can be produced by electrolysis out of water are restricted to the third row of the periodic table, specifically only some of the 3d elements: Iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc. Electrolytic production from aqueous solution is not possible for magnesium, aluminum, titanium, neodymium, samarium, uranium, beryllium, and many other reactive metals. Aqueous electrochemistry operates at or near room temperature which results in poor reaction kinetics and comparatively low space-time yields. 

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High-temperature electrolysis is the electrolytic pathway forward. Molten oxides have a much wider voltage window that allows for electrolytic recovery of even the most reactive metals. Sadoway has demonstrated this with manganese, titanium, neodymium and has designed processing chemistries for uranium, beryllium, and the other rare earth metals.