aurichalcum

[8] Dr. Hudson takes notice here, that this kind of brass or copper, or rather mixture of gold and brass or copper, was called aurichalcum, and that this was of old esteemed the most precious of all metals.

Antiquities of the Jews Flavius Josephus 1709

These were sometimes carved in wood or in hard black stone like basalt, but among the wealthy it became the fashion to have their statues cast in one of the precious metals, aurichalcum, gold or silver.

The Story of Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria W. Scott-Elliot