TL;DR: Plasma Smelting is a main entry in the 外星矿物知识引擎 database.
Using plasma arcs to achieve extreme temperatures (>10,000°C) for rapid metal extraction and refining from asteroid material
Organization
Various research groups
Target
Asteroid material (metallic and silicate)
Status
Laboratory concept; plasma torch technology demonstrated for terrestrial applications
Breakthrough
Plasma processing can handle mixed asteroid material without pre-sorting; achieves temperatures for PGM vaporization