 |
 |
Roger No - copper cannot be 'melted' in a simple big wood fire and I think that it is highly unlikely that wood/charcoal would have been considered as a fuel for copper smelting in 1872. It is unusual to smelt on the mine as the economics do not stand up unless a) There is a local supply of fuel as the process is requires a lot of fuel and b) The mine is big enough to warrant the investment in plant and people. If smelting had taken place the give-away would be slag. Chalcopyrite, for example, is only 34.5% copper and the concentrate produced before the days of flotation would be, maybe, only be 10-15% copper. Thus there would be a lot of slag. This mine is obviouly out in the bundu and I cannot see that any slag would have left the site so there would be a dump of it. Tony Brooks