Realistic way of separating silver from galena

[Luka Špec]

I like metalurgy in VS. Seing the devs are going for realism i think it would be great if cupelation mechanic was added to separate the small amounts of silver and other precious metals potentialy present in the galena.

Cupellation is a historic way of separating precious metals from lead by selectively oxidising and absorbing non noble metals in a cupel. A dish or bead from bone ash.

This is how i propose it would function in game.

First you mine and smelt galena into lead ingots like we do allready. Once ingots cool down howering with your mouse above them will show you how many % of silver and or gold does it contain. Ingots can still be used as they are now but should you wish to extract precious metals you would then mix ground bones and clay and clayform them into a cupel and fire it like any other clay item.

Then you would place the cupel into a pit kiln or fireplace, heat it up, and place at least 5 lead ingots into it ( that way you would get 1 silver nugget if the ingots contain 1% silver). When cupelation is complete and the cupel cools down you would take out your silver, gold or electrum (if both silver and gold are in the ore) nuggets. The used up cupel can then be shattered with a hammer and smelted to recover pure lead.

Edit: This mechanic could also be aplied to bismuth ore because bismuth minerals IRL can also contain silver.

 

Check this if you want to learn more: 

 

 

Edited July 21, 2025 by Luka Špec

[Zane Mordien]

That could be cool. They would just need to balance it so you cant get too much since early on silver and gold are powerful early game since they make black bronze. 

[Luka Špec]

If precious metal content in galena was kept to realistic percentages (0-5%) and if cupellation consumed larger quantities of high temperature fuels i do not belive it would be ovepowered.

[Facethief]

5 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

That could be cool. They would just need to balance it so you cant get too much since early on silver and gold are powerful early game since they make black bronze. 

If the crafting of the cupel was the same as stated in the post, it would require a quern to grind bone as per this:

7 hours ago, Luka Špec said:

Ingots can still be used as they are now but should you wish to extract precious metals you would then mix ground bones and clay and clayform them into a cupel and fire it like any other clay item.

So that would work to limit it to post-anvil.

My question is how one would process quartz versions of these ores. I suppose you could just crucible process it, as the gold melts at a much lower point than quartz.

[Luka Špec]

Depends on a type of quartz silver ore. If we assume silver is present as big native silver veins, crystals and such crushing and panning it out would be a realistic way to do it. If silver is present as small impurities in the quartz smelting it with borax and collector metal (lead or bismuth) that you would then cupel to recover the silver would be more acurate.