Extraction
Copper ore is extracted from either open mines or underground mines. For underground mines, a vertical tube is inserted into the ground to extract raw copper.
Grinding
Large rocks are broken into small ones. This is accomplished by a variety of successive steps until raw copper is turned into powder.
Also read: Information About Copper
Increasing Concentration
Raw copper is enriched by separating the materials from each other and removing unwanted materials, so they go down in order to convert the copper into a more useful shape.
Heating
Copper ore powder is heated to between 500 ° C and 700 ° C to remove sulfur and to dry the ore, which is still a solid material called “lime”.
Also read: Largest Copper Producing Countries
Melting
A substance is added to the copper to facilitate its melting process and make it melt faster. Solid lime is melted to a temperature of 1200 ° C. Some impurities are removed to form a mixture of liquid copper and iron sulfide.
Electric Refining
99.99% copper is purified by electrical refining.
Also read: What Are The Different Types of Iron?