Copper Mining

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but costs much more, up to $75,000,000. The third stage is producing the mine. This costs almost $30,000,000 a year, and takes 9 to 21 years before it is completed. The final stage is called final reclamation, lasting around 3 years and costing $27,000,000. These 4 stages apply to both of the 2 most basic forms of copper ores found in nature; sulfide ores and oxide ores. It is a complicated process removing the copper from these two ores since it makes up only 1% of the rock material.

Mining copper sulfide ores requires a grinding process to separate the copper from the rest of the rock. The first step is to blast the mine and then haul the material to a copper ore mill. Once at the mill, the material is grinded and pulverized to a fine powder. The copper is then separated from the basic rock substances through flotation. This stage separates 25-30% of the pure copper. Next, smelting occurs in a furnace to separate any iron from the copper. This separates 99% of pure copper. ...

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