A film in three parts looking at the process of extracting copper ore from waste rock and smelting the refined metal into pure copper bars.

Part 1. Milling Shows the various crushing and grinding machines, including: the primary crusher, vibrating screens, the cone crusher, and ball mill. Demonstrates how the coarse ore is separated from the finer ore using spiral and weight classifiers, and a flotation process.

Part 2. Flotation and Smelting Looks at the processes which separate the finely ground pure copper mineral from the finely ground waste rock particles using flotation cells, filters and furnaces. Shows how the waste slag is removed and tipped onto slag dumps, and how the molten copper matte is drawn off and cast into moulds to form blister copper.

Part 3. Shows the process of refining the blister copper to remove impurities using electrolitic cells, and how the pure copper is re-smelted and cast into bars. Ends with a summary of all the processes shown.