Why is this reduction?
At its simplest, where you are starting from metal oxides, the ore is being reduced because oxygen is being removed.

However, if you are starting with a sulfide ore, for example, that's not a lot of help! It is much more helpful to use the definition of reduction in terms of addition of electrons. To a reasonable approximation, you can think of these ores as containing positive metal ions. To convert them to the metal, you need to add electrons - reduction.

Choosing a method of reduction
There are various economic factors you need to think about in choosing a method of reduction for a particular ore. These are all covered in detail on other pages in this section under the extractions of particular metals. What follows is a quick summary.
You need to consider:
- the cost of the reducing agent;
- energy costs;
- the desired purity of the metal.
There may be various environmental considerations as well - some of which will have economic costs.
Chemical Reduction
Carbon (as coke or charcoal) is cheap. It not only acts as a reducing agent, but it also acts as the fuel to provide heat for the process. However, in some cases (for example with aluminum) the temperature needed for carbon reduction is too high to be economic - so a different method has to be used. Carbon may also be left in the metal as an impurity. Sometimes this can be removed afterwards (for example, in the extraction of iron); sometimes it can't (for example in producing titanium), and a different method would have to be used in cases like this.
Other more reactive metals can be used to reduce the ore. Titanium is produced by reducing titanium(IV) chloride using a more reactive metal such as sodium or magnesium. As you will see if you read the page about titanium extraction, this is the only way of producing high purity metal.
\[ TiCl_4 + 4Na \rightarrow Ti + 4NaCl\]
The more reactive metal sodium releases electrons easily as it forms its ions:
\[ 4Na \rightarrow 4Na^+ + 4e^-\]
These electrons are used to reduce the titanium(IV) chloride:
\[ TiCl_4 + 4e^- \rightarrow Ti + 4Cl^-\]
The downside of this is expense. You have first to extract (or to buy) the sodium or magnesium. The more reactive the metal is, the more difficult and expensive the extraction becomes. That means that you are having to use a very expensive reducing agent to extract the titanium. As you will see if you read the page about titanium extraction, there are other problems in its extraction which also add to the cost.
Reduction by electrolysis
This is a common extraction process for the more reactive metals - for example, for aluminum and metals above it in the electrochemical series. You may also come across it in other cases such as one method of extracting copper and in the purification of copper. During electrolysis, electrons are being added directly to the metal ions at the cathode (the negative electrode). The downside (particularly in the aluminum case) is the cost of the electricity. An advantage is that it can produce very pure metals.