Stamps
Stamps is the name for a mechanical device for crushing ore-bearing rock to
a fine sand. Heavy vertically-mounted beams or iron rods, carrying cast or forged
iron heads were sequentially lifted and dropped onto the prepared ore beneath
them by a series of cams mounted on a rotating drum; this usually being driven
by a water-wheel or rotative steam engine.
Bucking
The Bucking process followed Cobbing, in which
it had been broken down to about 25mm in diameter, the waste again being hand
removed. Bucking was then carried out by breaking down the copper ore bearing
rocks on an anvil to about 10mm in diameter by bal-maids using small hammers,
after which the ore was separated from the waste by hand. These processes, through
which the majority of the highest quality copper ore was recovered, took place
within roofed structures called bucking houses.