How to Make Metal From Ore

Remove the gangue, which is the dirt or rock mixed in among the ore. This is either performed chemically for copper and aluminum, using chemicals specifically for those elements, or more commonly through a method called "froth flotation." Froth flotation involves crushing the crude ore, treating it with pine or turpentine oil to make the ore compound particles water-repellent, placing all of the ore into a bath of water and a foaming agent such as soap; then pumping in air to make bubbles that capture the water-repellent metal compounds. The air bubbles bring the desired ore compounds to the surface while leaving the dirt and rock behind. With iron ore, the raw ore is crushed and then simply washed free of gangue.

Reduce the compound to metal using carbon reduction. This requires lots of heat a blast furnace. A blast furnace produces enough heat to melt the ore, using carbon and carbon monoxide to combine with the oxygen part of the compound and carry it away from the metal.

Remove the reduced metal from the blast furnace, or simulate the process of the blast furnace manually in a bloomery. To do this burn charcoal with the ore in the bloomery, providing plenty of oxygen from bellows or a blower.

Heat and hammer the resulting sponge-like mass into wrought iron. The hammering process beats out more impurities from the metal.