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 Azurite at an O...  . 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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