The copper-bearing minerals have been divided into three basic types: copper in the form of metal; CuO or CuCoI3I; and CuI2IS. The authors use a method of statistical analysis which assumes no correlation between impurities for calculating the probabilities of the composition of an artifact falling into the three categories and thus selecting the most probable one. To test this assumption, correlation coefficients for the 6 elements analyzed were calculated for the three types of ores. No significant correlation was observed between pairs of elements for Ag, Co, Fe, Hg, Sb and Sc.