How do you mine copper?
December 11, 2009 by
Filed under copper mine
how do you mine copper in the artic Tundra. Can you say this in a simple way? i found something on Wikipedia but it was too complicated.
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You would mine it the same way that you do anywhere. You first have to find an area where there is a high concentration of native copper or copper ores. You extract it from the ground and process it.
Copper is usually mined as a sulfide ore (chalcopyrite, chalcosite) and other associated sulfide minerals such as pyrite, pyrrhitite and magnetite. It is usually mined in the same way as anything else. Mostly pit or underground. Pit mining is basically a big hole in the ground where is underground is tunnels through the ore.
Most modern copper mining is done in open pits with explosives, giant shovels, and huge trucks to haul the ore to a mill or smelter. The method of extracting copper from ore rock has been improved with modern technology, but the ideas behind it developed directly from past experience. Since every ore is at least a little different from every other ore, the exact process varies with the type of ore. Sometimes the copper ore mineral is different; for example, chalcocite (copper sulfide) is very different from malachite (copper carbonate with water).UNR has a nice write-up on basic open pit and underground mining technologies. With process descriptions. http://www.unr.edu/sb204/geology/modern.html
Kennecott has photos of the mine to metal copper process, which consists of mining, hulling, crushing, grinding, floating, smelting, and electro refining. http://www.kennecott.com/copper_how_produce.html