First Attempt Smelting Copper Ore The Ancient Way

This is my first attempt to smelt copper malachite using similar methods to the ancient and prehistoric ways of producing copper metal. Smelting copper in this way is somewhat simple but requires time and some skill to do.
This is my attempt to smelt copper malachite that I collected over a year ago using the old ways of doing it. You can check out the video from the mine here ---- • Finding Malachite and ... . I started off by digging a small hole in the ground and placing a metal tube in it for the air to be blown in. In ancient times, a hallow wooden shaft with clay on the end might have been used instead of the metal pipe and air was blown in with bellows or by mouth. I then started to crush the malachite into a fine powder to be added to the burring charcoal fire within the dug pit. More charcoal is added over the top and sod is placed over it to trap more heat. Then I worked the bellow for several hours until the smoke slowed or until the process was finished.
Unfortunately, once the dirt was heated, it turned to powder and smothered out much of my fire messing up the transformation of the malachite into copper metal. Instead, I got lots of slag and very few copper beads. I also should have let the fire burn hot with a coalbed before adding the ore but the dried dirt would have caused problems anyway.
Next time I plan to do this by using clay to prevent the dirt from falling into the fire.
Note - This video was filmed before the high fire danger.
I hope you enjoy this video.
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#GeoForge #Smelting #Copper

[@Metal_Master_YT]

Amateur metallurgist here, I know this is 2 years old, but I have some advice for smelting copper ore and maybe others can benefit from this too. first off, you need more airflow, with all that fuel, and the very little airflow from that small bellows, it isn't going to get hot enough. in fact more air will actually solve multiple problems simultaneously. more air blows out the ash as well as dust which means less slag, and this also uncovers more fuel, and lets it burn more readily. it also gives it more airflow so it burns hotter. you want the fire getting yellow hot when melting copper, then you will get a very nice coalescence of molten metal at the end. also, copper is very easy to reduce from its ore, meaning that by the time you get the ore hot enough to melt the copper, the ore will have finished smelting. you don't even need that much fuel, and the less fuel you have, the more room you will have for copper to come together and coalesce. this is because copper is relatively unreactive, which means that it takes very little energy to reduce it from its ore, and it also cant hold onto very much oxygen either. after heating the ore, it will decompose and form copper (II) oxide (CuO) which only has one oxygen, meanwhile carbon can accept 2 oxygens per carbon atom. so you don't need much fuel to remove all the oxygen, and it gets in the way of the metal as it tries to coalesce. I would recommend a higher proportion of ore, and if possible, a higher purity. I don't know if this is a viable method, but you could crush and pan the ore so that only concentrated ore remains, then dry it and smelt it. finally I recommend lining the inside of the pit with smooth clay, and make it slightly deeper (less shallow) so that heat can be contained more and you can reach higher temperatures. the clay helps prevent copper getting stuck between dirt clods, and it helps with the coalescence at the bottom later.

[@imme9927]

Really need people like you to demonstrate how the ancient did this thing, thank you for the video

[@MrLee-cy1pw]

I'd like to correct you. You didn't make a mistake because you DID get some copper which is still an accomplishment. This attempt was necessary for ensuring the success of future attempts. Good video bro. Subbed.

[@GeoForge]

Thank you.

[@dickmckenna9447]

I totally agree Mr Lee ✌️😊

[@Legna1826]

Sooner or later perfection will be had. Really enjoy watching the attempt.

[@hardrockminer-50]

A friend of mine did something similar. He collected high-grade Ag ore, smelted and refined it himself then fashioned a wedding ring.

[@andreasantoalioto]

I am a geologist and teacher of math and science in italy. Great video thx.

[@MrAllan9]

Trial and error, enjoyed your honesty.

[@RagnarRocks]

Crazy, old school process man! Thanks for sharing! Congrats on the tailgate swap win! That cluster is EPIC

[@dustinfindsrocks]

Freaking cool!!! Awesome that you got some copper 👍🏼

[@GeoForge]

I hope for better results once I give this a second shot using clay.

[@vitowekanyenda7469]

I'm very impressed my dear

[@rockgoblinadventures5520]

Pretty rad. Glad to see it working a bit.

[@GeoForge]

Looking forward to trying again once I can.

[@ghostbirdlary]

under rated channel. deserve at least 100k subs. 5 min crafts has like 100m subs and this is better content with 4k subs this says alot about society

[@verdikulk6193]

Great video, and great analysis, my man, great try 👍

[@peterbell5806]

Cool!

[@dickmckenna9447]

It's a bit of a late post but better late than never. I appreciate your efforts. I collect malachite and azurite from the local copper mines up here in Whitehorse Yukon. Mostly for specimen value. Which is worth a heck of a lot more than the copper value. However I have always wondered if it can be smelted on a fire in the backyard so to speak. As these copper carbonate minerals were the first to be "smelted" by ancient civilizations it leads me to believe so. I encourage you to give it another go and yes make sure you have a dandy hot fire. And make sure you use the purest form of malachite that you can. Malachite contains 55 percent copper by weight so that will give you an idea of what you should end up with should the experiment be successful. You got my sub for the effort. I'm routing for ya my friend. 😊👍

[@GeoForge]

I do plan to give it another go in the future. The old mine where I was collecting the ore from is now private land. At least I have a 5 gallon bucket full of the stuff. Its hard to find a good specimen pieces but I keep all the azurite, that stuff is just to nice of a blue to crush up. Thank you for the sub, I hope to produce more content here soon!

[@treasurehuntingnewyork5979]

Things like this are very interesting and your being partially successful with such a crude technique is incredibly promising with a few refinements you would be well on your way to having something you could at least Barter with in ancient times even if you didn’t have the resources to refine it further then just copper beads

[@GeoForge]

I find a lot of the old technologies and ways of doings things very interesting and appealing. Thanks for your comment.

[@gcurrell]

Keep going Dude you'll get there

[@GeoForge]

I will, thank you.

[@MountainAgates]

I think you would love coming to Portland and exploring the historic 19th century Lake Oswego Iron Ore foundry area. Look me up and we'll hound for history as the slag glass is awesome and many mistake it for Obsidian. I have chunks of Iron with slag embedded in it. and there is lots more out there too! I work in a foundry in Pennsylvania and I gotta say I love your video using an ancient method .

[@neurodivergejyn4140]

Oh I didn’t even know about this! I live out of Gaston so this would be fascinating to go see! Thank you!

[@okami-shaman9548]

A follow up video would be nice!

[@user-df9js2ug6g]

I tried this using local clay to make a crucible with a lid. The roughly crushed malachite was placed inside and then a substantial bed of charcoal was used. This keeps the ore away from the detritus of the fire. Evidence suggests clay crucibles were used, it makes sense and works.Important to use high grade charcoal. This was heated for about an hour using constant bellows. I think you need more oxygen hence bigger more effective bellows. I got a pretty pure lump of pure copper. Once the green flame disappears you are getting to the point when the metal has been smelted. Don’t breath too deeply, malachite often contains some arsenic!

[@GeoForge]

Unfortunately, the smelting in this video didn't go fully as I planned but, I was still able to produce some copper metal. I plan on trying this again but using clay to protect the charcoal from being smothered out. I filmed this video earlier this year before the high fire danger. I wont be able to try this again until that danger has passed.

[@MrLee-cy1pw]

You could Try building a draft furnace out of clay. But next time you should keep adding charcoal and then another handful of the malachite powder, do this like ten times. When you're all out of powder add more charcoal at least five more times to ensure it all gets smelted.

[@GeoForge]

@@MrLee-cy1pw I do eventually plan on trying this again with either a clay furnace or another process. Unfortunately where I was collecting the malachite is no longer accessible, but fortunately I still have a 5 gallon bucket full of the stuff.

[@shedmanstephen8725]

Yes just a crude clay liner will stop the cave inns and a bigger bellow a hairdryer works well it wasn’t only not enough heat it was to much oxygen ‘ it’s best done in a crucible with about one quarter charcoal ‘ the charcoal drives the oxygen out and then the exchange happens ‘ just make a crude crucible out of firing clay and seal it with a clay lid lay it in the centre of your fire heat it and you’ll get the best results a good first try anyway

[@TestTest-tj4nt]

Hell yeah

[@JsStack]

Very interesting video. Just subscribed. I do metal melting on my channel and this would be fun to try. I would use my Devil Forge and a graphite crucible though. Thank you for sharing.

[@ewa8723]

Where did you get the copper rock from? Where can you get just the ore form?

[@kurenai5000]

Not bad for such a old school method. All you need to do is refine it more by heating it in a crucible if you want. That should purify it a bit.

[@GeoForge]

I'll be buying a furnace and crucible one of these days.

[@kurenai5000]

@@GeoForge Same. Someday.. I've looked online and you can get propane gas and electric ones for anywhere from 100-300$. The crucibles is probably the main longterm cost.

[@dhisnadhamayanthi1135]

What is the largest Cooper field in the world

[@KS-hj6xn]

Build a much larger bellows.. 10 times bigger.. Then build a clay kiln.. Concentrate the crushed ore. Try again...

[@rubenskiii]

333th like. :) Thanks for the informative video! Greetings from the Netherlands🇳🇱.

[@johncastro7372]

but my question to you is can i refine silver in this way i am having trouble doing research.

[@GeoForge]

I don't think you can because rocks and minerals containing silver are completely different from malachite. Malachite is a copper carbonate and heating it with charcoal I believe helps with the reaction to separate the carbonate off the copper. Silver minerals are in the form of sulfides which will require a different process I believe. I am not a expert in these things and I am still learning myself.

[@NickDeubert]

Where did you get the ore?

[@GeoForge]

From an old copper mine in Eastern Washington which was recently made private property and can no longer be accessed.

[@Twobirdsbreakingfree]

Were you right to put a lid over the forge? Does that significantly increase the temperature?

[@GeoForge]

Helps keep the heat in like an oven. Unfortunately, we have bad soil so it dried out and fell apart smothering the coals partially.

[@Twobirdsbreakingfree]

@@GeoForge im going to try making a solid clay (with sand temper) lid for my charcoal mud forge. Then I'll make a small hole in the wall of the forge to allow me to insert the metal work piece. I think my forge will get up to hotter temperatures if I do it this way and also it will allow me to insert the workpiece horizontally instead of vertically from the top. But maybe I should put a small vent hole in the clay lid? Yea, your soil probably has a low clay content. Look near stream beds maybe for clay and collect some in bags.

[@GeoForge]

@@Twobirdsbreakingfree Clay should work a lot better. A small hole in the lid for venting should work good. I wish you luck and have fun.

[@user-xl9em5tm7b]

Que pedra vc colocou no fogo?

[@GeoForge]

Eu coloquei malaquita no fogo, que é um carbonato de cobre. (Eu usei o google translate, então espero que isso traduza corretamente).

[@LukeAnimador]

Hello!

[@GeoForge]

Hello there.

[@user-nz4iy7lo3y]

Did ancient man have steel pipe bellows and plastic pans???

[@markhepworth]

They had clay pipes,leather bellows and clay/pottery pans.

[@ataali4279]

I make like you did and i get same result , so is it need more temperature ?

[@GeoForge]

More temperature for longer and more charcoal.

[@ataali4279]

@@GeoForge yesterday i put crushed malachite with charcoal on curcible on oven for 1500 degree temperature, and i close the crucible not let the oxygen go inside , then i get small pieces of copper , i will collect the small pieces and smelting it with porax to get on piece of copper 👍👍

[@connieferguson430]

Does anyone ever use copper stone unrefined in building like a shower room.

[@GeoForge]

Depending on the condition of the stone/ore, I'm sure it could be done.

[@the_rover1]

Him: "I smelt copper the ancient way" Also him: "like they did thousands of years ago" Then: *takes out steel pipe as air canal ten seconds into the build* 0:30 😅

[@johncastro7372]

you used like 1 rock... like you were only gonna get 1 cent of copper period... you have to crush like a bucket of ore... like if you want a copper medalion or a shield you have to crush like 10 times that amount in ore. the charcoal method is fine you just need to put more ore on the fire dude

[@GeoForge]

I was mainly seeing if I could get the process to work for me and I wasn't expecting a large copper metal to come from this smelt. I crushed about 5 stones worth, I just didn't include that in the video because I assumed nobody wanted to see me crush rock over and over again.

[@deanerhar]

How to smelt copper the ancient way: Step 1: Bury STEEL pipe in the ground. Step 2: Crush ore in STEEL pot… Step 3: …buy copper from modern hardware store? 🤦‍♂️

[@GeoForge]

Its the process of smelting it in the ground that is ancient. I didn't want to make a clay pipe and blow into it for hours or smash the ore on rocks. The copper is from an old copper mine I collected at in another video and not from a hardware store.

[@jaysunkreuze1466]

It's not a prehistoric method. It's an ancient method. If it was pre history you wouldn't know about it.

[@yargeht]

You’re right, copper age is the first coming out of the Stone Age. But we do know a lot about prehistory lol By your latter point we wouldn’t know about dinosaurs either, but we clearly do