Turning Malachite Rock into Copper in a Homemade Foundry

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Turning Malachite Rock into Copper in a Homemade Foundry

Рет қаралды 15,822

Күн бұрын

In this video I melt some Malachite rock into copper using my homemade foundry setup.
Malachite is a beautiful stone that is often polished into beads for necklaces in bracelets, however one lesser known fact is that it can also be turned into copper.
I used a clay mold to shape the copper into a small primitive ax head, however it didn't work so good. I should have refreshed my memory of the original Iceman axe design because it lasted a whole lot longer than mine.
The metal foundry was made from an old popcorn tin, concrete, and a single burner from a propane forge that I also use for blacksmithing. The burner itself detaches with 4 bolts which makes it easy for multi-purpose use amzn.to/3fSgUgD
This video is for entertainment purposes only. This stuff can be dangerous, so always ensure you have proper training and safety gear.
Please subscribe to my channel and follow along as I setup a sustainable homestead with my tiny house :) / @sustainablecraig
I've included some links to the products I used in this video. Use of the links won't cost you any extra money but does give me a commission which I put towards future projects. Thanks for help supporting my site! :)
I use graphite crucibles to melt the aluminum and copper from amzn.to/3fOMv2G
The crucibles get SUPER hot so I got some tongs designed specifically for handling them amzn.to/36mkWe0
Thanks to all of you who have watched and subscribed to my videos!
In this video I show you how I demolished an RV and melted the scrap metal into aluminum and copper ingots. • Melting an RV into Met...

Пікірлер: 55

@tinaboyd7574 2 жыл бұрын

It blows my mind ancient man said, "let's melt this green rock and see what happens?" LOL! Consider using the spidery looking smelted copper, polished up, in some sort of inlay project. You do a great job presenting and always fun to watch. Keep up the great work. 🙂

@SustainableCraig 2 жыл бұрын

It is definitely an interesting discovery from our ancestors. I just picture someone bored... Throwing rocks into the fire. And then, eureka :) Using the copper for an inlay project sounds cool. Got any particular ideas in mind? It definitely has an eye catching factor to it. Thanks for the nice comment. I appreciate it! :)

@codygooch510 Жыл бұрын

Really? I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods alone with fire. It’d be the first thing I tried lol. Maybe it’s the male brain vs the female brain 😂

@user-ug5sb6qg1u Ай бұрын

That's called granulation, mix ore or fine metal shavings with charcoal and heat it in a low oxygen environment, it makes round beads of different sizes. It was and still is used to make jewelry, there are lots of videos of it. If you'd continued to heat it you likely would've got a small ingot, the copper would have eventually flowed together under higher heat.

@carz520 9 ай бұрын

I bet that copper is very strong😮

@stevesrt8 3 жыл бұрын

That's cool! The copper from the second melt looked great. Nice copper shot.

@SustainableCraig 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I thought you might enjoy this one. I appreciate the continued support on my channel :)

@mkbman45 3 жыл бұрын

Awesome job! Straight forward and very informative.

@SustainableCraig 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I try to get to the point. I appreciate the comment and support on my channel :)

@naikmuhammad972 Жыл бұрын

Great

@raa6504 6 ай бұрын

I think that's an atz. Those kind of axes were fitted to a '1' shaped branch as the handle.

@SustainableCraig 2 ай бұрын

Ya in hindsight I didn't install it correctly. 🤦‍♂️

@JohnDoe45762 Жыл бұрын

So cool man thanks for sharing. and I really appreciate how you showed that you can smelt larger chunks of copper ore.

@carz520 9 ай бұрын

That would be very dangerous But I love it😊 It's really cool though even though it's dangerous

@mytinyretirement 3 жыл бұрын

Interesting! What a great skill to have!

@SustainableCraig 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! It's been a fun way to handle some of the scrap metal I have left from other projects.

@HouseholdDog Жыл бұрын

Wow was surprised how good that ingot looked.

@carz520 9 ай бұрын

That looks cool And I am a rock expert❤ It's really cool try it out

@aliciadion4054 3 жыл бұрын

What a cool project 😎

@SustainableCraig 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Been wanting to do this one for a long time!

@nunyabisnass1141 10 ай бұрын

Im two years too late for addi g insight, but my ameteur experience is that you can basically cook any copper ore/nased material in rhe oresemce of a reducing agent (carbon is often the agent of choice) and it will yeild a purified base metal. My experiments are converting copper sulphate because its cheap and easy to get, into its carbonate and directly smelting just by heating, or comvert it to its oxide with heat and adding carbon to steal the oxygen.

@PSK44 10 ай бұрын

Awesome job 👍

@trinitemplar 2 жыл бұрын

This was cool

@SustainableCraig 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I appreciate the nice comment.

@carz520 9 ай бұрын

So cool I love it❤❤❤ Five stars excellent

@ataali4279 2 жыл бұрын

The coal used for pull oxide from copper , malachite is cu2co3 , with heat the co2 will go out , and the coal will take the oxygen from cu2 then we get pure copper , thanks for this video

@SustainableCraig 2 жыл бұрын

Great explanation! :)

@shedmanstephen8725 Жыл бұрын

Yes the more oxygen that the presses is exposed to the less effective ; the best results are in a sealed crucible with 1/4 the amount of charcoal ; the exchange happens in an oxygen free Environment the charcoal drives the oxygen out of the sealed crucible and the best way to shape that axe is by cold hammering; copper hardens with cold hammering it compresses the molecules so hammering that thing into shape would harden it which is what’s needed to make an axe head

@ataali4279 Жыл бұрын

@@shedmanstephen8725 thank sir for this info , so the better way is putting 1/4 of charcoal and 3/4 of malchiate ?

@hassenmohamod8134 Жыл бұрын

Good,,,

@JamieRamsay Жыл бұрын

great vid mate

@SustainableCraig Жыл бұрын

Thanks Jamie I appreciate that. 🙂

@JamieRamsay Жыл бұрын

@@SustainableCraig i had a go at it myself the other day, i managed to get 192 grams of copper out of 700 grams of malachite,

@carz520 9 ай бұрын

That looks dangerous of the lava

@zaheerali3281 Жыл бұрын

❤

@maximustillman4240 2 жыл бұрын

If I were you, I wouldn't melt the malachite and I would tumble it instead

@SustainableCraig 2 жыл бұрын

Maximus you make a good point. Malachite is beautiful when it's tumbled and I have a tumbler for some other rocks I've found on my adventures. I'll likely save the rest for doing just that. This was one of those experiments though that I'd heard about and just had to try myself. Thanks for the comment.

@zaheerali3281 Жыл бұрын

Sir u use crucible use?

@zaheerali3281 Жыл бұрын

Sir i am using the same method

@muspavenus8925 Жыл бұрын

what temperature does it have to be can i do it in a bunsen burner

@SustainableCraig Жыл бұрын

I don't think you'll be able to do it with a bunsen burner. Copper melts around 2,000° F

@cherrycapitaldrones211 3 жыл бұрын

Did you weigh the malachite before and the copper after? What was the conversion percentage?

@SustainableCraig 3 жыл бұрын

I didn't weigh it unfortunately. I had that same question afterwards. I'm going to keep my bigger stones intact at this point but I still have enough smaller particles for one more melt, so on that iteration, I will get that data. Thanks for the comment and for supporting my channel :)

@ataali4279 2 жыл бұрын

Malachite have about 30-40% pure copper , and thats depending on rock

@ataali4279 2 жыл бұрын

The price of tonne of copper about 11k usd , it good business

@SustainableCraig 2 жыл бұрын

Yeah copper is definitely valuable these days. I don't think you'd make a lot of money converting malachite to copper in current times but I definitely agree if you mean copper scrap. Malachite is such a beautiful stone that I think people can make more money selling the stone than they can converting it to copper. That being said it is a really fun experiment and neat to watch copper resulting from the process. Thanks for the comment! :)

@cherrycapitaldrones211 3 жыл бұрын

What is the purpose of adding the coal ash?

@ataali4279 2 жыл бұрын

Malachite is cu2co3 , with heat co2 will out then we get cuo , then we need to pull oxygen from oxide copper , the coal ash its need oxygen cuase he cover the curcible , and its take the oxygen from oxide copper , then we got metal copper , thier is other way it by let the hydrogen gas pass through oxide copper when it heated the it will take the oxygen and be h2o and we get pure copper

@brianmaney1973 8 ай бұрын

Im a newb, but why would you adulterate the malachite with ashes?

@SustainableCraig 2 ай бұрын

You need the coal for the reaction to occur.

@codygooch510 Жыл бұрын

Wow. No go look up some Mississippian Indian artifacts found in Alabama and Indiana and try making one of those art pieces out of what you have! 😂 good luck. Crazy how much spare time having no technology gives ya!

@SustainableCraig 2 ай бұрын

There is definitely some beautiful stuff made of malachite. I felt bad smashing it up. When I travel overseas the shops always have some really cool malachite trinkets.

@machinerydoctor Жыл бұрын

Please don't use gloves with power tools . Once the tool grabs the glove it'll pull it in with your flesh and bones . 43 yrs in heavy industry, my hands and fingers are still with me . Thanks for the video I'm currently collecting ore to refine .

@naikmuhammad972 3 жыл бұрын

Great

@SustainableCraig 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for commenting on my channel. :)