Calamine brass Calamine brass Calamine brass is brass produced by a particular alloying technique using the zinc ore calamine directly, rather than first refining it to metallic zinc. Direct zinc smelting appears to have been unknown in Europe until the mid-18th century, even though the alloyed calamine brass was in use for centuries, and metallic zinc was produced directly via reducing-atmosphere smelting in India and China from the 12th century CE onwards. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc and, when it was first developed, methods for producing metallic zinc were unknown. Metallurgists wishing to produce brass thus used calamine (actually
Pnictogen be produced by fractional distillation of air. The principal method for producing phosphorus is to reduce phosphates with carbon in an electric arc furnace. Most arsenic is prepared by heating the mineral arsenopyrite in the presence of air. This forms AsO, from which arsenic can be extracted via carbon reduction. However, it is also possible to make metallic arsenic by heating arsenopyrite at 650 to 700 °C without oxygen. With sulfide ores, the method by which antimony is produced depends on the amount of antimony in the raw ore. If the ore contains 25% to 45% antimony by weight, then