Method of and apparatus for casting and hot-forming copper metal and the copper product formed thereby

In a method of continuously casting and hot-forming copper containing as much as from about 20 ppm to about 200 ppm impurities wherein the copper is cast into a cast copper bar in a mold, extracted from the mold and hot-formed at a hot-forming temperature by a plurality of sequential compressions, the improvement comprising the steps of:

• cooling the cast copper bar while in the casting mold to a first temeprature below which the bar is hot-formed whereby the cast copper bar is solidified into a sound casting;
• extracting the sound casting from the casting mold;
• preheating the sound casting to a second temperature higher than the first temperature and prior to said hot-forming step;
• and
• hot-forming the preheated sound casting into a hot-formed copper product with no or substantially no cracking of the bar.