how much copper can be expecte to be found in an ore to be considered a great site to dig. what percentage of the ore should be copper if u want to dig for copper?i know random question but i need to knowthanks
Because of the high price of copper today of more than US$3/lb, copper mines are now mining as low as 0.2% copper. That is, for every ton of ore they can recover 20 kilograms or 44 pounds of copper metal assuming a 100% recovery. Additionally, due to the very large capital investment requirement in putting up a copper mine that runs to hundreds of millions of dollars , the copper deposit must again be large enough for the recovery of investment with substantial profit in the long run. Miners consider a minimum of 100 million tons of ore grading about .5% Cu or even lower as a potential copper mine depending on the by-product. Normally, there are other metals by-products in the recovery of copper such as, but not limited to gold, silver, lead, zinc, molybdenum, etc.
Hi Good question. The answer depends on a lot of factors. The grade of ore depends on the economics of extraction, i.e. what profit you can make per tonne of ore. This depends on the current copper price, the location and therefore the operating costs of mining. Also, the type of minerals also plays a part, as copper is cheaper to extract from oxide minerals than sulphide minerals. As a general rule of thumb, a grade of over 0.5% Copper could be economic from a near surface easy to mine oxide deposit, but a grade of 5% or so would be required for a sulphide. So a great site to dig would have grades higher than those mentioned above. But, depending on the cost of extraction you might need a grade higher than that.
