Copper Mines


Name Formula % Copper
Chalcopyrite CuFeS2 34.5
Chalcocite Cu2S 79.8
Covellite CuS 66.5
Bornite 2Cu2S CuS FeS 63.3
Tetrahedrite Cu3SbS3 + x(Fe,Zn)6Sb2S9 32-45
Malachite CuCO3 Cu(OH)2 57.3
Azurite 2CuCO3 Cu(OH)2 55.1
Cuprite Cu2O 88.8
Chrysocolla CuO SiO2 2H2O 37.9
Principal Copper-bearing Minerals

Today the most common source of copper ore is the mineral chalcopyrite. About 50% of all copper produced world wide is extracted from this ore. Historic mine extracted high grade ores, where copper minerals were contained as pure as possible. Unfortunately those mines are general polymetallic hydrothermal dykes, which are in general rather thin and surrounded by hard rocks. As long as they were mined manually this was rather positive, as the mines were stable. But they are not very good for modern mining using heavy machinery. So modern mines generally used massive deposits of huge size but low grade. They are often mined in huge open cast mines with very heavy machinery.

There are various processes for the extraction of the metal. The most simple and cheap one is the use of sulfuric acid for leaching the copper, called solvent extraction. The dissolved copper in the acid is later solidified by the electrowinning technology. This process works only with oxide ores, as sulfides are resistant to sulfuric leaching. Sulfides are concentrated using froth flotation and are subsequently smelted to recover the copper. There is also the possibilty to use a bacterial oxidation process to oxidize the sulfides. Then the upper leaching process can be used.

A rather elegant method is the electrorefining, where the copper is refined by electrolysis. Processed blister copper is placed in an aqueous solution of 3-4% copper sulfate and 10-16% sulfuric acid. Cathodes of thin rolled sheets of highly pure copper are used to accumulate the copper from the ore.