Donbas State Technical University (DonSTU), Alchevsk, Russia

Yu. P. Shubin, Associate Professor of the Department of Geotechnology and Industrial Safety, Candidate of Geological Sciences, e-mail: u0502823920@yandex.ru

2Institute of Geology named after Academician N. P. Yushkin of Komi Science center of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Syktyvkar, Russia.

I. Kh. Shumilov, Senior Researcher, Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, e-mail: ikh_shumilov@mail.ru

In the territory of Donbas, the kurgan complexes of the Bronze Age have an increased proportion of silverware. The discovery of ancient mines in the polymetallic deposits of Donbas makes the experimental reconstruction of smelting of silver-bearing sulfosalts relevant. The results of the reconstruction of the metallurgical conversion using ancient technologies of sulfosalts selected in the area of the location of the ancient mining system in the Nagolno-Tarasovsky ore cluster are presented. The melting process was carried out in a melting furnace and a melting pot recreated according to historical data. The composition of the initial ore material, fahl ores and bournonite, selected in the area of the Dalnaya Zhuravka pit and the Utrennaya mine of the Zhuravsky and Nagolno-Tarasovsky silver-polymetallic deposits, respectively, was studied using electron microscopy (CUC Geoscience of the Institute of Geology of the Komi Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences). The products of metallurgical conversion such as copper alloy, vitreous slag, as well as the material of the replaced pot are studied. The peculiarities of the redistribution of basic chemical elements by melting products are revealed. The factors ensuring the efficiency of metallurgical conversion and the main stages of smelting, as well as the chemical composition of the smelting products, have been established. It is shown that antimony and silver are separated in a copper melt, which allows them to be separated at the stage of primary melting. To obtain the final products such as copper and silver it is necessary to apply refining and cupellation.

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