ASARCO - How It's Made: Copper

Aw, man...this video says it's 14:30 long, but the last five minutes is a repeat of the middle five minutes. The real video ends at 9:38.

Getting to that 9:38, though, is some impressive information about the mining and refining of copper.

Rock is exploded and strip mined...leached with sulfuric acid...electrochemically refined...or pulverized...turned into slurry and concentrated...mixed with silica flux and smelted...

The whole video is brilliantly informational, and the green flames - first appearing at 5:14 and reappearing a number of times, most brilliantly at 5:30 - are absolutely stunning.

Heck, the opportunity to see the shimmering, reflective, molten copper at 5:40 alone is worth the price of admission.

The video's original source is the ASARCO website...

http://www.asarco.com/about-us/our-locations/asarco-mineral-discovery-center/making-copper/

...and was uploaded to YouTube so it could be embedded here. The entirety of the ASARCO website has some great information about the copper refining process - images, diagrams, explanation, outstanding stuff. And, yes, the video is mirrored left-to-right, but the process is still shown clearly.