Abstract: A method of controlling the movement of particles entrained in a liquid metal flowing along a confined flow path having a substantially horizontal base characterized by the steps of:(1) disposing a first planar device within the flow path to cause the shedding of vortices downstream of the device so that particles having a predetermined range of terminal velocities are trapped within the vortices and agglomerated into clusters of particles.(2) causing the agglomerated particles to be sedimented either upwardly or downwardly and(3) establishing a flow pattern downstream of the first device in which the local Reynolds number decays to a value sufficiently lower than 10.sup.3 to result in essentially laminar flow of the metal so as to minimize re-entrainment and subsequent break up of the agglomerated particles.