How To Make Copper from Scratch: Secret technology of the Ancients - How To Smelt copper at home
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
- Today I will show you a technology that forever changed the destiny of mankind. We will be making copper like the ancients and doing a little home smelting to get copper metal out of copper ore. Even from the earliest days, mankind appreciated the beauty of copper minerals and made those stones into some of his first jewelry and art. Among some of the pretty blue and green copper minerals, he also found this odd red metal substance that that was really useful and could be beaten into things like knives, axes and hammers. But there wasn’t much of it. In time he learned he could melt it and combine little pieces that were too small into a larger one. It is likely that in melting it, he discovered that he could turn those pretty blue and green rocks into that really useful red metal. When we made that discovery, mankind changed forever and we progressed from the Stone Age to the Copper age (and not long afterwards into the bronze age). Today we will repeat that same discovery and show how this very primitive technology works to turn pretty minerals into copper metal. Copper was the first metal smelted out from an ore and we will be doing some smelting at home with these rocks.
For those who want to learn more about Prospecting and finding gold check out my book, Fists full of Gold. It’s an encyclopedia of everything on the topic of prospecting. It’s available on Amazon. You can find it at (affiliate):
www.amazon.com...
For even more information on prospecting, minerals, gems and other related information you can also check out my website at:
nevada-outback-...
The Prospecting and Mining Journal magazine can be found at:
www.icmj.com
Great class Chris. I found it very interesting when you took the crushed copper ore and smelted it. A demonstration like that is worth a thousand words. Thank you.
Thanks 👍
I learned a little about Heap leaching, SX & EW during a mine tour in Casa Grande years ago....Awesome video Chris , You truly are a professional Prospector !
Very cool! They are doing one in AZ now without the mining or the heaps - they drill many holes and pump the dilute acid into the ground then remove the solution and extract the copper. It's in situ mining of the mineral without moving the rock. I did a small heap leach for gold with cyanide for a company I worked for many years ago.
Just amazing to see, looking forward to more Chris.
Glad you enjoyed it. More to come!
A campfire left burning all winter can also leave metal on the bottom in Spring if it is lined with stones containing metal. Burning evergreens and Birch is hot on windy days and metal cannot escape it's reaction to heat.
With lead and copper it would work.
@@ChrisRalph I was surprised Pb was not discovered first. It would have been my guess.
Its the pretty nature of copper minerals. Lead minerals are more boring.
I found so many radiator cores. Thank you for your help
Glad I could help
Charcoal briquettes usually aren't pure charcoal but have quite a bit of sand and ash added to them. You should use chunk charcoal instead.
True there are additives, but even chunk charcoal has ash left over when burnt.
Great learning video now I want to make some copper !!!!!!
Going to be making more shortly.
@@ChrisRalph good way to stay warm !!!!
I really enjoyed learning about how our ancestors processed copper! Great video! Thank you!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
that one gets a 10 star rating in my book most informing one yet .........very good thank you
Glad you enjoyed it.
The knowledge you have is amazing. I love learning about all this stuff. Thank you for sharing your knowledge Chris.
My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you for the information, fellow human. I too, like red metal. It's nice to look at with my human eyes and useful for making human tools. My overseer will surely appreciate my findings when I return to my -space- sea ship
Keep smoking them if you have them.
@@ChrisRalph Sadly not, I moved to Japan and that (you meant weed because of my odd comment?) Gets you locked up here. I'm about to try wilderness survival though and (jokes aside) got some great info from your video. Maybe I'll be crafting some copper tools this time next month. Thanks for a cool vido. I'd love to know good geological features to look for while hunting for ore, but there's no videos on how to maximize search efficiency. I assume rock sldes and river banks wold be a good bet to avoid wasting energy on digging
Now I need to look up what the ancients used for a furnace! My curiosity is well and truly piqued. Thanks for sharing this.
Any time!
Great video. Very interesting and informative. I have a scrapping and melting channel. This looks like it would be fun to do and try. Thank you for sharing. Just subscribed.
Sounds great!
I just watched your video for the first time and it was fantastic. I have a lot of copper ore available to me in Montana and was looking for a simple way to smelt it and this seems to be it. A question I had from the video was you mentioned adding a flux to the final melting process. What does this flux consist of and where could I find it in the game? Thanks for this late commentary, it was superb
I used a mix of borax and sodium bicarbonate (arm and hammer).
'''' THANKS ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,!
Glad you enjoyed it. More videos to come!
Outstanding! Mike and I just stumbled on a vein of copper today! Will try your method in the vid. Thank you Ralph
Sounds good. Have fun!
I watched your lecture keenly, wondering the sincerity you have. An eye opening guide for those who want to alter their destiny by using the inferior deposits they have. May God bless you.
Thanks.
Chris, I would like to let you know that you have made me a better Earth Science teacher. Your videos answer a lot of questions that my students have. I have shown several of your videos so they can see what some minerals look like in nature. They think diamonds look like jewels in a rings when they are found in the rough. AWESOME CONTENT. I subscribed.
Wow, thanks! I will shortly come out with a prospecting for copper video with loads of copper mineral images, and a discussion of the geology of copper deposits (this will be the video after next).
@@ChrisRalph Can't wait!
I don't know how I didn't see this video for the past couple of years that I've been trying to look for videos on copper extraction process. That was awesome explanation and show by doing. Thanks for wonderful contents. Subscribed for more contents like this.
Glad you enjoyed it!
This was a really cool one. I especially appreciate that you did an actual smelting demonstration.
I've been looking around the internet for weeks, about this exact subject.
Except I was trying to learn about ancient silver identification and processing. Since it just looks like a grey or black rock in a world without metal detectors, looses heat so fast and oxidizes so readily.
(not to sway you but it would be a pretty cool follow-up subject to compliment this video)
~Thanks~
In time I am planning videos on silver extraction by both smelting and leaching. Subscribe if you have not already and you will see these videos in a few months.
@@ChrisRalph I subscribed after binge watching the day I found your videos. They're thoroughly informative and well made.
Also I have an interesting nonpublic mineral question I think you might be able to help me with, if I say please.
Ask Here and I will do my best. Otherwise, I get so many, many requests for personal help, advice, training, review, mineral ID, etc. - every day - I simply cannot get involved with all the requests. I have plenty of my own projects to work on.
Thanks for sharing I’m definitely going to give this a try. I come across chrysocolla when looking for gold. Definitely want to make my own copper bar.
Best of luck to you in your efforts!
Thank you. I love copper.
Me too! Glad you enjoyed it.
Very interesting, great video, thanks again, Chris
Glad you enjoyed it! A similar video working with sulfides is coming next week.
Another great video, interesting and informative. Keep up the good work and thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
Excellent explanation of an interesting topic. Thanks for the lessons. Hope to see you at the 2021 North Yuba Nugget Hunt
Let me know the date as soon as you have it and I'll put it on my calendar.
@@ChrisRalph Will do. I’ll be checking with the guys. Probably the last weekend in July again. Aloha
Very helpful information video Sir 🙏 thank you very much sir.❤️
Most welcome, a similar video working with sulfides is coming next week.
Hi Chris, thanks for what you provide, deep appreciation. Can copper in quartz ores be confused with gold? I keep finding fine things (in quantities) and not sure what they are, I am sure they are not pyrite as I tested them with a multimeter and they showed continuity .. could they be chalcopyrite?
Few ores have metallic copper, most are copper containing minerals. Hard to guess what minerals you might be seeing in your ore. I get so many, many requests for personal help, advice, training, review, mineral ID, etc. - every day - I simply cannot get involved with all the requests. I have plenty of my own projects to work on. Watch my videos on how to identify minerals for yourself. Start with - th-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/w-d-xo.html Best of luck to you.
It's always a good thing knowing that we can pull ourselves out of the next stone age. Same goes for cooking without a stove or oven of worse fast food restaurant. LOL. By the way do you do much prospecting derring the winter but away from the snow. I would imagine that you would do more desert prospecting if you do.
The high desert can be cold and windy and it doesn't take much snow or ice to make roads treacherous. I do the bulk of my prospecting in the warmer months, some but less in the cooler months and only a little in December-January.
Thanks for the copper lesson Chris ! It's certainly more abundant than gold. LOL ! I had a lease on a copper mine many years ago. It was all oxides in Dolomite and it leached like candy with a very dilute solution of sulfuric acid (PH=4). I designed a vat leach process by crushing ore to 1 inch. This reduced the carbonate reaction to the acid. The solution was pumped in to a miniature version of a Kennecott cementation cone, where the copper precipitated onto scrap iron. Precipitate was 76% copper. Was simple and cheap process. Unfortunately, at $.65 /lbs. copper, I couldn't get investors for the project. The ore and dump tails are still there. At today's price it might be worth it ! Makes me wonder..... Hummm ??
The long term outlook for copper is to rise higher in future years on increased demand and reduced supply from old mines producing lower and lower grades. The newer SWEX process is MUCH more efficient than the old cementation on scrap iron process.
I think you're right on future copper prices. Will definitely look more into SWEX process. Might be easier than searching for scrap iron. Have good Thanksgiving. 👍
Thanks Chris.. very rich ore.. impressive!
Great video sir
✌️PT
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. It was fun to make.
Such a cool video! I have a source for quite a bit of copper ore so this is pretty dang cool.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Thanks a bunch Chris Ralph! Interesting to see how much copper you got out of the ore. I bet once they figured out about metals they were off to the races on all types :) Your videos are amongst my favorites and you have taught me a lot! You bring a lot of information to the table and do us amateurs a great service! I am ordering your book but man I wish it was hardback full color. I learned from you tho: color is the least informative quality in identification. Neways can't thank you enough!
Glad you enjoyed the video. The problem with color and hard back is the cost which is way, way higher for small print runs like mine. In full color, hard back, my book would have been $150 instead of $30. Would you have bought my book if it were $150? I figured most would prefer the lower price. Many of the diagrams and other illustrations are black and white to begin with, so they would not have been in color even if it were printed with color.
Thank you for the info I always wondered how they separated the ore to pure clean copper.im lmao assuming that other metals are done with the same technology but tweaked to get the meatels they are wanting. Very informative.
Some are similar but tweaked, some are wildly different. Glad you enjoyed it.
Interestingly, I see that this process is very similar to calcination of limestone (which is also a carbonate, but of calcium instead of copper) into quicklime (which is calcium oxide).
I reduced chalcopyrite in a pit before and it was slow and messy. Think I will try in the crucible next time. Thanks!
Plus it can get lost in the ash.
Thanks for the great video, I enjoyed watching it. Looking forward to trying your method. Ill let yah know how it goes.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Thank You Chris, you are inspiring! Is Amazon the only vendor for your book?
There are other people who sell it, but they are out of stock too. The book will again be available on Amazon soon - sign up on the page for the book and they will email you when the new books are in. For now, I am totally out of stock, my distributor is out of stock, Amazon is out of stock - everyone is out of stock. The book is being reprinted and the last step of printing is happened a couple days ago. In the past it has taken about a month to get it reprinted, but with the covid thing it has taken 10 weeks to print the new copies and it will be another week before they are delivered from the printer who is in Minnesota.
Sorry for the delay, I did not intend for the stock on hand to reach zero, but covid has made a mess of many things.
Sir at what temperature Copper ore decompose? Sir is it better to calcine malachite before reduction?
depends on what minerals in the ore.
Hmm so for the modern way we need sulfuric acid, which I presume comes from some sulfide depisits, or native sulfur, right?
So how can we find sulfur deposits in nature in order to be able to make the sulfuric acid?
Much copper ore is chalcopyrite, a copper iron sulfide. Processing chalcopyrite generates sulfuric acid. The oxidized ore use sulfuric acid to leach the copper in that process, so it balances out.
Do you think copper can be a huge matket as we can see the new age battery have copper plays vimp role.
Copper is rocketing up to record high prices.......
How hot above copper melting point do I need my furnace to go, to smelt from ore how you did? Thanks
Roughly 200 C above the melting point should do it.
What flux did you use?
Does it slag off the lead?
I used a mix of borax and sodium carbonate. There was no lead in the sample.
In pottery we call that a Reduction Firing. Potters use reduction firing by using more fuel and less air . The reduction firing is how we get the red coppers in our glazes from Copper containing glaze
Yes. Very similar.
How to extract copper from Chalcopyrite ??? Is it by same methods as your video??
Yes.
Mr larph , i should melting ore copper with coal first and then i melting again with flux ? Two time melting it ? I look for all video on TH-cam , you the only one channel make its super
It all depends on what kind of copper ore you are talking about.
@@ChrisRalph its chrysocolla ، so it same way melting on vid ?
hi chris malachite there is copper ore can i get a successful result if i apply the same technique
You should be able to get the same result if you follow all the same procedures.
Love your video. I wonder what temperature do you need to reach in order to smelt that mixture?
About 1100 degrees C.
@@ChrisRalph Thank you very much for the info
Great video presentation. What did you use for flux and what did the ancients use for flux?
I used a mix of borax and sodium bicarbonate (arm and hammer). The bicarbonate decomposes to carbonate when heated. A mix of borax and sodium carbonate is a very standard flux. I dont know what the ancients used - maybe dried sea salt?
@@ChrisRalph Thank you!!
Thanks a lot bro!! what was the purity of your coal processed copper?
I would guess around 95% or so.
I have one tonne of ore copper , so if i want melting it , i need at least 400 kilo of flux and its coast , so that's meaning i not earn any money , can i melting it without using flux ?
You probably cannot make money on one ton of copper ore.
@@ChrisRalph i have big mountain have ore copper maybe 2k tonne , i look for cheap flux
I have seen those piles up in Butt Montana
Lots of copper came from Butte.
What is that wich you call flux, and what kind did the ancients use?
grat video man.
I used a mixture of borax and sodium carbonate (soda ash).
@@ChrisRalph is soda ash obtainable from an organic source?
Not that I know of.
Hello sir , i did exactly like you did , and the result is copper but its breakable , so what is the reason ?
I dont know what you did different - it must be something.
@@ChrisRalph maybe its need more temperature ? I did it on 1300 degree , is it enough ?
hey there, I have been looking at a ton of videos related to gold and other metals, is there a way to work for a prospector like yourself as a miner, panner, etc... I would like to try
Not that I know of. I get so many, many requests for personal help, advice, training, review, mineral ID, etc. - every day - I simply cannot get involved with all the requests. I have plenty of my own projects to work on. I do my videos, I wrote a book, I write for a magazine. That's the best I can offer. Best of luck to you.
@@ChrisRalph well you certainly do not seem to have much time left after all of that, could you put me in contact with some one who could want?
As I said in my first response, not that I know of - I dont know of anyone.
@@ChrisRalph ok thanks any way, by the way if you like space related stuff a few years back I made 3 videos about a way that could be used to travel to other stars check it out, as it could very well be what eventually gets done.
i sow guy called mbmmllc he basically did the same as you did but with gold he just miltingthe sand has gold in it i find it really interesting way to get the gold out the sand
I know the guy and I have been to his shop in Washington, USA.
How to to extract copper from chrysocolla ? Is it by same methods in this video ??
yes, but much Chrysocolla has only a little copper in it.
@@ChrisRalph sorry i have no good experience , i think its malachite , its whity green , ia it good ?
If you are unsure of what it is, then I am also unsure.
@@ChrisRalph im sure its malachite 👍
In your opinion, this piece of copper has a percentage of gold
It is mostly copper, very little gold, only traces.
One day
Ok.
lol 45% in return imagine if you find a gold mineral has the same amount !!
Gold minerals with 45% or more gold do exist, but they are rare (tellurides).
We always tend to discount how early man was stupid and the inventions were probably by accident which may not be wrong but we also know that they could analyse their environment in depth in order for them to be able to adapt and survive and maybe those inventions were not by accident but through practical and logical analysis.
We always discount the generations that came before us.
what are your thoughts on copper pipes?
Copper pipes exist, but I have no idea what you are asking about.
The danger in Copper pipes is in the Lead solder. Copper does not react enough with water to harm you. An old penny should give you an idea of how little Copper reacts to water and air.
Hi Chris I'm Forbes from Zimbabwe wow great lecture really loved it we have plenty copper deposits down here in Zimbabwe and I wanted to extract gold from the copper ore by using vat leaching with cynide but it been very difficult, I read an atticle on ammonia cyanide leaching and I would like to know more about that.
Pls tell me the cutoff of coper ore
It is not a simple question. It depends on the type of ore, how big the ore body is, where the ore is located, and also grade - it is not just grade alone.
At least tell me the copper ore cutoff with other parameters to be cosiderered. Because there is copper ore in my country. If you don't tell me this I can't benefit fron your wonderful lecture.
Something between 0.5 percent and 2 percent. The country makes a big difference - some have very little infrastructure, some have a lot. More toward 0.5 percent in places like the US, something more towards 2 percent in developing nations sometimes higher than 2 percent in developing nations with rebellions and civil hostilities. If the ore body is too small, it doesn't matter the percent - if its too small it will not be economic no matter the percentage. The differences depends on the type of ore, how big the ore body is, where the ore is located. Those make a big differences. Mining companies spend several hundred thousand dollars US in studies to determine the exact number.
@@ChrisRalph Dear sir, thank you so much for your satisfactory answer. If I have more qyestion I will contact you.
What do you know about gold in sandstone in Colorado
I know nothing about it. Gold does not often occur in sandstone.
@@ChrisRalph I wish I could send you a picture of this piece I have. Muriatic acid ate the sandstone but did not eat the flakes of what I believe maybe gold
I'm glad you enjoy the videos, but unfortunately, I get so many, many requests for personal help, advice, training, review, mineral ID, etc. - every day - I simply cannot get involved with all the requests. I have plenty of my own projects to work on. Watch my videos on how to identify minerals for yourself. Start with - th-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/w-d-xo.html Best of luck to you
@@ChrisRalph personal help would be point me towards non precious metal, I'm a simple hobo that likes simple rocks. Thankful for the blessings of the precious metals when they're laid in front of me. Part of appreciating the simple things this land gives to us. As you are a prospector I know you enjoy the metals more than I. Respecting your love and knowledge I share my lil finds with those like you. Learning what the land gives . Thank you for this and all the videos.
One day copper bijnes men🎉
One day.
@@ChrisRalph sar copper ore Price
@@ChrisRalph my bijnes Screp metal
I read that copper wiring in the US is required to be at least .994 percent copper
It has to be very pure.
I found a copper pendant that was made primatively in a corn field while I was working in the field.it was an eye opener.it was at least made by native Americans late 1700's.my ex threw it out.smh.
Probably thought it was jewelry from another woman!
@@ChrisRalph lol.it was beaten like gold nugget with waves in it.it had a stem and not a loop.to tie rope around it.thats how I knew it was native American.it was extremely old.
Sir after reduction, how to separate coke from metal?
metal sinks, coke floats.
@@ChrisRalph sir i am using graphite powder which also sinks with metal.
show this to Ea-nasir
You show it to them.
@@ChrisRalph Ea-Nasir he makes bad copper
How come this guy with so much useful knowlege talks like he's intertaining a 2nd grade classroom full of sleepy eyed kids?
You see it that way because you are overly sensitive and take far too many things personally that should not be taken that way. That is me speaking in a plain way to an adult, but guess what? you wont like that either.