Some developments in copper, lead and zinc extractive metallurgy which have gone in to production or seem to be close to production scale are described with emphasis on why these innovations have been adopted. Mineral processing operations are now using: automated quantitative mineralogy, high capacity fine crushing equipment, fine grinding equipment, and column cell flotation._x000D_
Extractive metallurgy plants are using: bath smelting of concentrate at various scales, and flash converting of copper. Hydrometallurgical process developments are slower to make a commercial impact. Concerns about ability to handle impurities in the feed and production of saleable by-products are often major hurdles. An expression for the probability of implementing the first example of a new development is presented._x000D_