Separating copper from ore with smelting

As a pure metal, copper is one of the easier metals to work with and not difficult to cold hammer into different shapes. While it probably doesn't make a great ax, it has been used for many other helpful implements that aided in shaping history. Over thousands of years, the use of metals has altered societies, so profoundly that eras in human development are labeled by them in the Bronze and Iron Ages. 

Copper is not found throughout the world in a pure nugget form like that of the Great Lakes Basin. It's most commonly found embedded in a matrix, of "sedimentary or volcanogenic rock."(Tourtelot and Vine 1976) This would require an extraction process, smelting, to separate the metal from the host rock by crushing and then heating to extremely high temperatures. Experimental archaeologists have recreated this process giving us a insight into how these ancient peoples managed to procure the metals necessary to craft tools, decorative items, weapons, and implements of daily survival. 

Tourtelot, E.B. and Vine, J.D. 1976 '"Copper deposits in sedimentary and volcanogenic rocks" U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper [Preprint]. https://doi.org/10.3133/pp907c.