Blister copper

Description

An intermediate product in copper smelting. Blister copper is formed when copper sulfide ore has been incompletely reduced to metallic copper. It is approximately 96-99% pure copper and is riddled with bubbles due to escaped sulfur dioxide gas during solidification.

Synonyms and Related Terms

blinding; cobre "blister" (Port.)

Authority

• Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993

• Henry Hodges, Artifacts: An Introduction to Early Materials and Technology, Ronald P. Frye, Kingston, Canada, 1988

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998