Alloy was used by the Inuit people. Native copper, however, was found worldwide, along with silver, gold, and platinum, which were also used to make tools, jewelry, and other objects since Neolithic times. Copper was the hardest of these metals, and the most widely distributed. It became one of the most important metals to the ancients. Eventually, humans learned to smelt metals such as copper and tin from ore, and, around 2500 BC, began alloying the two metals to form bronze, which was much harder than its ingredients. Tin was rare, however, being found mostly in Great Britain. In the Middle
Sundown Tin and Copper Mine above the dams, leaching the metallic salts and having a strongly sulphurous smell. The Copper Mines are located about east of the furnace site, and consist an adit near the creek, and a series of 3 shafts along the line of the reef running roughly s-w to n-e over the crest of the ridge, and mullock associated with the shafts. The main shaft is a three-compartment shaft. There is a collapsed ore bin and shute, and some concrete machinery pads, but no other substantial above- ground remains. Sundown Tin and Copper Mine was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on