How did ancient people first figure out metallurgy? Wouldn’t they have had to know to dig up the metals from deep underground in the first place?

Question

Basically what the title says, how did people first figure out that metal would be useful, how to work it, etc, if metal is buried under the ground and requires a substantial effort to extract?

In: 8

Answer 1

Metals are not necessarily deep underground. Raw metallic copper existed in surface deposits. Copper and more so iron ores exist on the surface. Pretty much any red rocks probably have some iron content. Red clay does too.

At some point, rocks must have been cooked in a reducing environment like a charcoal furnace, and produced useful metal.