Ancient authors described Thrace as a land rich in copper, iron, gold, and silver, and portrayed the Thracians as skilled miners and expert metalworkers.

In the fourth millennium BCE, humans created an entirely new material: bronze. They initially used an alloy of copper and arsenic, but later copper and tin. This alloy was harder and more durable than copper. Objects made of bronze could be remelted after wear or breakage and cast anew. Local sources provided copper, gold, and silver, but tin had to be imported from distant lands. In the west, tin was mined in present-day England; in the east, it came from present-day Afghanistan. During the Bronze Age, particularly in the second millennium BCE, large trade networks emerged. Through these networks, people exchanged raw materials, finished goods, and technologies.

The first step in producing metal objects was extracting raw materials. This work was handled by specialized groups with knowledge of deposits, rocks, ores, and their useful properties.

The Thracians' mining skills, developed during the Bronze and Iron Ages, became especially valuable in the Late Iron Age, particularly after the rise of the Odrysian, Triballian, and Getic kingdoms.

Large deposits of non-ferrous and precious metals existed in the Rhodope, Strandzha, Sredna Gora, Stara Planina, and Pangaion mountains. The great rivers Hebros (Maritsa), Tonzos (Tundzha), and Arteskos (Arda) also carried gold. After extracting the metals, Thracian craftsmen melted them in furnaces. They then used casting and forging techniques to create both useful and valuable objects, such as blades, weapons, jewelry, vessels, and horse ornaments. During the Late Bronze Age, craftsmen cast objects using stone and clay molds, then further refined them through forging, filing, and polishing before adding decorations. Several hoards of stone molds have survived, representing the tools of foundry workshops from the end of the Bronze Age. During the Iron Age, remains of fine metalworking workshops have been discovered in most Thracian cities and settlements—including Seuthopolis, Helis, Cabyle, and Pistiros. The large quantity of finished products and tools found north of the Stara Planina mountain shows that such workshops also existed in the areas of Montana, Vratsa, and Targovishte.