In the mining sector, treatment and refining costs are the main costs of extracting metal from ore.
Treatments costs are those of the smelting process which uses heat to melt metal in order to extract it mechanically from the ore.
Refining costs are those of electro-refining processes, the output of which is metal that is pure enough to be sold for most purposes.
Treatment and refining costs are an important component of the cash cost of mining.