How to make bronze

V.           How to process the ore to make bronze.

In order to obtain copper from the ore several steps must be taken. In early times simple kilns were made to heat the ore, which is what we should do early on in our development. By heating the ore we can get rid of the impurities. Heating that takes place in a kiln, which also requires charcoal. The charcoal makes the fire burn hotter, which is important because the ore can only be melted at high temperatures. Making a hearth is simple. All you need to do is line a hole in the ground with fire resistant bricks, usually clay. The fire would burn at high temperatures and the ore could be placed in it. The furnace must get to about 700-800 degrees Celsius in order to smelt copper. Figs 4 and 5 show the contrasting kilns we can make one of ancient form and one that was recreated in modern times. Copper is often found in the form of Copper Carbonate. In order to extract pure copper it must be heated with charcoal and have sufficient CO, carbon monoxide. Charcoal is heated with air to make Carbon Monoxide which eventually yield pure copper by seperating the Carbonate from the Copper:

CO + CuCO3 => 2CO2 + Cu

This following equation is another example of how Copper is obtained from Copper ore. This time the copper ore has Hydroxide in it. There are various types of ore and different equations for each of them:

2Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 + 3C => 6Cu + 7CO2 + 2H2O

 
Fig 4: Depiction of a old kiln