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Abstract

During an investigation, a number of broken furnaces were found near the ancient iron smelting sites in and around Kakching, a village in the south eastern part of Manipur, inhabited mostly by the scheduled caste communities. On preliminary examinations, most of the rock samples collected from the sites were found to be debris of iron slag adhered to the big furnaces from which iron was extracted by the ancient smelters by traditional techniques [1]. However, one such lumpy rock which was found a bit heavier than other pieces of the same size was suspected to be iron ore. Apreliminary round of examination was done on the spot by using a simple magnet. The magnetic separation technique of the powdered sample reveals the presence of iron feelings. The X-ray Diffraction confirmed the iron contents to very small amounts. The possibility of using rocks from the adjoining areas as ores manifests the amounts of energy and time spent by the ethnic community in obtaining a small amount of iron for domestic tools. 

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