Black copper

Black copper , also known as raw copper and in earlier times, king copper , is the first smelting of copper ore. The black copper contains around 95% Cu , depending on the raw ore around 0.5% Ag as well as sulfur and other undesirable accompanying minerals. The black copper is cleaned of these additions in a process called cooking . In pre-industrial times, silver was obtained using the Saiger process , later by mercury amalgamation in special Saiger huts or amalgamation plants.

Black copper is brittle, fragile and has a dirty red color.

literature

• anonymous: mining dictionary . it shows the German names and idioms and at the same time the Latin and French used by writers. Ed .: Johann Christoph Stößel. Chemnitz 1778, p. 485 .
• Otfried Wagenbreth et al .: Mining in the Ore Mountains . Technical monuments and history. Ed .: Otfried Wagenbreth, Eberhard Wächtler . 1st edition. German publishing house for basic industry, Leipzig 1990, ISBN 3-342-00509-2 , p. 338 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Schwarzkupfer  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Black copper. mineralienatlas.de, accessed on January 19, 2013 .