Posted by Adam Quinan on March 08, 2002 at 17:22:59 from 192.75.48.3:
In Reply to: gold and copper posted by Michael on March 08, 2002 at 17:05:45:
I have written an article on the subject which can be found at the link below.
Basically, it would have been difficult to get the charcoal hot enough to melt gold but not completely impossible.
The "gold" dust was not copper but a copper sulphide. In the blast furnace it turned to copper oxide or "burned up". Copper is more reactive than gold so it reacts with the oxygen in the air at moderate temperatures.