1. Introduction of aluminum or iron into the reaction mixture together with silicon leads to the production of multicomponent coatings and accelerates the chemical heat treatment of copper. 2. Surface alloying of copper with aluminum and, particularly with aluminum and silicon together considerably increases the scale resistance and wear resistance of copper. 3. Diffusion saturation of copper with silicon, iron, silicon and aluminum together, and silicon and iron together increases the chemical resistance of the metal towards 20% ammonia solution and 1% nitric acid.