 Beryllium is most commonly extracted from the mineral beryl , which is either sintered using an extraction agent or melted into a soluble mixture . The sintering process involves mixing beryl with sodium fluorosilicate and soda at 770 ° C ( 1 @,@ 420 ° F ) to form sodium <unk> , aluminium oxide and silicon dioxide . Beryllium hydroxide is precipitated from a solution of sodium <unk> and sodium hydroxide in water . Extraction of beryllium using the melt method involves grinding beryl into a powder and heating it to 1 @,@ 650 ° C ( 3 @,@ 000 ° F ) . The melt is quickly cooled with water and then reheated 250 to 300 ° C ( 482 to 572 ° F ) in concentrated sulfuric acid , mostly yielding beryllium sulfate and aluminium sulfate . Aqueous ammonia is then used to remove the aluminium and sulfur , leaving beryllium hydroxide . 
