Mundic

Mundic was used from the 1690s to describe a copper ore that began to be smelted at Bristol and elsewhere in southwestern Britain. Smelting was carried out in cupolas, that is reverberatory furnaces using mineral coal.[1] For more details, see copper extraction.

Mundic once[2] referred to pyrite,[3] but has now adopted the wider meaning of concrete deterioration caused by oxidisation of pyrites within the aggregate (usually originating from mine waste). The action of water and oxygen on pyrite forms sulphate (a salt of sulphuric acid), thereby depleting the pyrite, causing loss of adhesion and physical expansion.

  1. ^ J. Day, 'Copper, Zinc, and brass production' in J. Day & R. F. Tylesote (eds.), The industrial Revolution in Metals (Institute of Metals, London 1991), 141.
  2. ^ Science Direct: Very Low Frequency electromagnetic survey applied to mineralised zones on the north-western edge of Dartmoor, Devon
  3. ^ Science Direct: ‘Mundic’-type problems: a building material catastrophe [1]