The article describes the prerequisites of filtration refining of metal melts. When filtering the liquid metals the refining effect is caused by the deposition on the filter surface of suspended non-metallic particles in the melt, and by the release of the non-metallic phase directly from the melt. Along with this the mechanism of melt refining from a superequilibrium dissolved impurity is realized when filtering as a result of the reaction course of chemical binding of the impurity element.