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Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals concentrated above background levels, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit. The grade of ore refers to the concentration of the desired material it contains. The value of the metals or minerals a rock contains must be weighed against the cost of extraction to determine whether it is of sufficiently high grade to be worth mining and is therefore considered an ore. A complex ore is one containing more than one valuable mineral.
Bornite, also known as peacock ore, is a sulfide mineral with chemical composition Cu5FeS4 that crystallizes in the orthorhombic system (pseudo-cubic).
Chuquicamata is the largest open pit copper mine in terms of excavated volume in the world. It is located in the north of Chile, just outside Calama, at 2,850 m (9,350 ft) above sea level. It is 215 km (134 mi) northeast of Antofagasta and 1,240 km (770 mi) north of the capital, Santiago. Flotation and smelting facilities were installed in 1952, and expansion of the refining facilities in 1968 made 500,000 tons annual copper production possible in the late 1970s. Previously part of Anaconda Copper, the mine is now owned and operated by Codelco, a Chilean state enterprise, since the Chilean nationalization of copper in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Its depth of 850 metres (2,790 ft) makes it the second deepest open-pit mine in the world, after Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah, United States.
Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper ores consists of a series of physical, chemical and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, local environmental regulations, and other factors.
Chalcocite, copper(I) sulfide (Cu2S), is an important copper ore mineral. It is opaque and dark gray to black, with a metallic luster. It has a hardness of 2.5–3 on the Mohs scale. It is a sulfide with a monoclinic crystal system.
Porphyry copper deposits are copper ore bodies that are formed from hydrothermal fluids that originate from a voluminous magma chamber several kilometers below the deposit itself. Predating or associated with those fluids are vertical dikes of porphyritic intrusive rocks from which this deposit type derives its name. In later stages, circulating meteoric fluids may interact with the magmatic fluids. Successive envelopes of hydrothermal alteration typically enclose a core of disseminated ore minerals in often stockwork-forming hairline fractures and veins. Because of their large volume, porphyry orebodies can be economic from copper concentrations as low as 0.15% copper and can have economic amounts of by-products such as molybdenum, silver, and gold. In some mines, those metals are the main product.
The Bingham Canyon Mine, more commonly known as Kennecott Copper Mine among locals, is an open-pit mining operation extracting a large porphyry copper deposit southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, in the Oquirrh Mountains. The mine is the largest man-made excavation, and deepest open-pit mine in the world, which is considered to have produced more copper than any other mine in history – more than 19,000,000 short tons. The mine is owned by Rio Tinto Group, a British-Australian multinational corporation. The copper operations at Bingham Canyon Mine are managed through Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation which operates the mine, a concentrator plant, a smelter, and a refinery. The mine has been in production since 1906, and has resulted in the creation of a pit over 0.75 miles (1,210 m) deep, 2.5 miles (4 km) wide, and covering 1,900 acres. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966 under the name Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine. The mine experienced a massive landslide in April 2013 and a smaller slide in September 2013.
In ore deposit geology, supergene processes or enrichment are those that occur relatively near the surface as opposed to deep hypogene processes. Supergene processes include the predominance of meteoric water circulation (i.e. water derived from precipitation) with concomitant oxidation and chemical weathering. The descending meteoric waters oxidize the primary (hypogene) sulfide ore minerals and redistribute the metallic ore elements. Supergene enrichment occurs at the base of the oxidized portion of an ore deposit. Metals that have been leached from the oxidized ore are carried downward by percolating groundwater, and react with hypogene sulfides at the supergene-hypogene boundary. The reaction produces secondary sulfides with metal contents higher than those of the primary ore. This is particularly noted in copper ore deposits where the copper sulfide minerals chalcocite (Cu2S), covellite (CuS), digenite (Cu18S10), and djurleite (Cu31S16) are deposited by the descending surface waters.
A polymetallic replacement deposit, also known as carbonate replacement deposit or high-temperature carbonate-hosted Ag-Pb-Zn deposit, is an orebody of metallic minerals formed by the replacement of sedimentary, usually carbonate rock, by metal-bearing solutions in the vicinity of igneous intrusions. When the ore forms a blanketlike body along the bedding plane of the rock, it is commonly called a manto ore deposit. Other ore geometries are chimneys and veins. Polymetallic replacements/mantos are often stratiform wall-rock replacement orebodies distal to porphyry copper deposits, or porphyry molybdenum deposits. The term manto is derived from the Spanish word manto, meaning "mantle" or "cloak".
In the United States, copper mining has been a major industry since the rise of the northern Michigan copper district in the 1840s. In 2017, the US produced 1.27 million metric tonnes of copper, worth $8 billion, making it the world's fourth largest copper producer, after Chile, China, and Peru. Copper was produced from 23 mines in the US. Top copper producing states in 2014 were Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, and Montana. Minor production also came from Idaho, and Missouri. As of 2014, the US had 45 million tonnes of known remaining reserves of copper, the fifth largest known copper reserves in the world, after Chile, Australia, Peru, and Mexico.
Southern Copper Corporation is a mining company that was founded in 1952. The current incarnation of Southern Copper can be traced to the 2005 acquisition of Southern Peru Copper Corporation by the Mexican copper producer Minera México.
The mineral industry of Peru has played an important role in the nation's history and been integral to the country's economic growth for several decades. The industry has also contributed to environmental degradation and environmental injustice; and is a source of environmental conflicts that shape public debate on good governance and development.
Iron oxide copper gold ore deposits (IOCG) are important and highly valuable concentrations of copper, gold and uranium ores hosted within iron oxide dominant gangue assemblages which share a common genetic origin.
The Batu Hijau mine is an open pit copper-gold mine operated by PT. Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara. The mine is the second largest copper-gold mine in Indonesia behind the Grasberg mine of PT. Freeport Indonesia. The mine is located 1,530 kilometres (950 mi) east of the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Sumbawa, an island in West Nusa Tenggara Province, more precisely in the southern part of West Sumbawa Regency. The mine is the result of a ten-year exploration and construction program based on a 1999 discovery of the porphyry copper deposit. Production began in 2000.
The San Manuel Copper Mine was a surface and underground porphyry copper mine located in San Manuel, Pinal County, Arizona. Frank Schultz was the original discoverer, in 1879, but the main body of the deposits were discovered by Henry W. Nichols in 1942. The exploration drilling went on from 1943 to 1948, with the first mine shaft built 1948. Louis Lesser developed a mining city to service Nichols’ newly discovered deposits, and the development was completed about 1954. The first major production began in 1955. The mine and smelter were permanently closed in 2003.
The Toquepala mine is a large porphyry copper mine in the Tacna Province, Tacna Department, Peru. The mine is an open-pit mine producing copper, molybdenum, rhenium and silver with minor gold and zinc.
Escondida is a copper mine at 3,100 metres (10,200 ft) elevation in the Atacama Desert in Antofagasta Region, Chile.
Los Pelambres mine is a copper mine located in the north-central of Chile in Coquimbo Region. It is one of the largest copper reserves in the world, having estimated reserves of 4.9 billion tonnes of ore grading 0.65% copper.
The Quellaveco mine is a large copper mine project located in the south of Peru in the Moquegua Region. It is undergoing government environment approvals for its Environmental Impact Assessment. The last EIA modification was submitted in 2014. The Quellaveco mining property is majority–owned by Anglo American. Quellaveco represents one of the largest copper reserves in Peru and in the world, having estimated reserves of 1.1 billion tonnes of ore grading 0.55% copper. The planned development of the mine estimates a processing capacity of 85000 metric tonnes per day. Fluor Corporation has been assigned as the EPCM contractor for this project.
The Cerro Verde mine is a very large copper mine located about 20 miles southwest of Arequipa, in southwestern Peru. Cerro Verde represents one of the largest copper reserves in Peru and in the world, having estimated reserves of 4.63 billion tonnes of ore grading 0.4% copper and 113.2 million oz of silver.
References
- ↑ "Copper mines" (PDF). southernperu.com. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-24. Retrieved 2013-07-06.
- 1 2 Aquino, Marco; Rochabrun, Marcelo (2022-03-14). "Southern Copper's Cuajone mine in Peru suspended production due to protest -SNMPE". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
- ↑ "Southern Copper, Peruvian government to find solutions to conflict with communities around Cuajone mine". MINING.COM. 2022-05-01. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
- ↑ Clark, Alan; Tosdal, Richard; Farrar, Edward; Plazolles V., Armando (1990). "Geomorphologic Environment and Age of Supergene Enrichment of the Cuajone, Quellaveco, and Toquepala Porphyry Copper Deposits, Southeastern Peru". Economic Geology. 85: 1604–1628. doi:10.2113/gsecongeo.85.7.1604.