Arizona copper mines

Arizona was established in 1921 by W.W. Edwards( 1876-1922), formerly of Aetna Explosives Co. Apache Co has been manufg various grades of dynamites and its principal trade is in copper mines of S. Arizona(such as Bisbee) and adjacent territory Ref Van Gelder Schlatter(l927X634... 

Arizona Copper Mountain Mine Ore deposits and mining wastes Wenrich and Silberman (1984)... 

Copper is mined in more than 50 nations, from Albania and Argentina to Zambia and Zimbabwe. As of 2008, the leading producers are Chile, the United States, Peru, and China. The next largest producers are Australia, Russia, Indonesia, and Canada. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), about 99 percent of copper mined in the United States comes from Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, and Montana. 

Figure 22-10 An open-pit copper mine near Bagdad, Arizona.

The first step in the SX/EW process a leaching field at a copper mine in Arizona, USA. 

This is a true case study of how one person s drive, desire, and ambition to make a difference in safety brought about one of the most significant safety culture changes in the copper mining and refining industry in Arizona. 

In the U nited States, Arizona is the largest producer of copper, followed by U tab. New Mexico, Nevada and Montana. Many of the deposits in North America are, however, of a high-cost type with low copper contents. Because of this, more interest has been devoted to deposits in South America, China and Indonesia, countries that have shown the greatest increases in copper mine production in recent years. Annual production in the United States has decreased by 25% since 1996 owing to high production costs, falling copper prices and a weak demand, but the country is still second among the producer countries. 

Important examples of such ores are Bingham Canyon in Utah, USA, Sierita in Arizona, USA, and most importantly Chuquicamata in Chile. This mine is situated in Northern Chile on the western slopes of the Andes. It has an open pit, 2 3 km, with a depth of 800 m. and is one of the biggest copper mines in the world. About 600 000 tonnes of ore are mined daily. 

Two separate field tests were conducted at a copper mine in Arizona. The objectives of these tests were to evaluate the technical and economical feasibility of selectively recovering copper from a variety of dilute mine solutions using the LEM technique. The first field test of the LEM mobile system was conducted in September of 1993, and the second in May-June of 1994. 

Rhenium does not occur free in nature or as a compound in a distinct mineral species. It is, however, widely spread throughout the earth s crust to the extent of about 0.001 ppm. Commercial rhenium in the U.S. today is obtained from molybdenum roaster-flue dusts obtained from copper-sulfide ores mined in the vicinity of Miami, Arizona, and elsewhere in Arizona and Utah. 

One, the CLEAR process, was investigated by Duval Corporation near Tucson, Arizona (29). It involves leaching copper concentrated with a metal chloride solution, separation of the copper by electrolysis, and regeneration of the leach solution in a continuous process carried out in a closed system. Elemental sulfur is recovered. Not far from the Duval plant, Cypms Mines Corporation operated a process known as Cymet. Sulfide concentrates undergo a two-step chloride solution leaching and are crystallized to obtain cuprous chloride crystals. Elemental sulfur is removed during this stage of the process. 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Mines, 441,000 t of copper are recovered yearly by leaching/ electrowinning methods.14 Although solution operations are conducted throughout the Southwestern U.S., almost 75% of the facilities14 are located in Arizona. There are two facilities in New Mexico, one in Utah, and one in Nevada. 

In 1986, domestic consumption of copper in the United States was 2.14 million metric tons, and mine production was 1.14 million metric tons, mostly from mines in Arizona, New Mexico, and Michigan. The major copper deposits in the United States are of hydrothermal origin and are uniformly distributed in fractures or veins (ATSDR 1990). Copper is the major toxic component in streams impacted by active placer mines (Buhl and Hamilton 1990). About 60% of copper metal is eventually recycled in 1986, smelting of scrap copper produced an additional 0.9 million metric tons of copper. Also in 1986, 1.1 million tons of copper were imported into the United States, mostly from Canada, Chile, Peru, and Mexico (ATSDR 1990). 

World molybdenum production has increased from about 90 metric tons in 1900 — half from Australia and Norway, half from the United States — to 136 tons in 1906, 1364 in 1932 (an order of magnitude increase in 26 years), 10,909 in 1946, and 91,000 tons in 1973. Through the years, molybdenum has been produced in about 30 countries. In 1973, about 60% of the worldwide production was from the United States, 15% from Canada, 15% from the U.S.S.R. and China combined, and 10% from other nations — Chile, Japan, Korea, Norway, and Mexico (King et al. 1973). By 1979, the United States produced about 62% of the world production of 103,000 metric tons, and exported about half, chiefly to western Europe and Japan other major producers in 1979 were Canada, Chile, and the U.S.S.R. (Kummer 1980). In the United States, only three mines in Colorado account for almost 70% of domestic production. Other active molybdenum mining sites in North America are in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and California molybdenum reserves have also been proven in Idaho, Alaska, Pennsylvania, and British Columbia (Kummer 1980). About 65% of domestic molybdenum is recovered from ores rich in molybdenum the rest is a byproduct from ores of copper, tungsten, and uranium (Chappell et al. 1979). 

Copper ores are found worldwide, in Russia, Chile, Canada, Zambia, and Zaire and, in the United States, in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Tennessee, and Utah. High-grade ores of 99% pure metal were found in the United States (and other countries), but many of these native ore deposits have been mined over the past hundred years and are now exhausted. Even so, many low-grade ores with concentrations of 10% to 80% pure copper still exist and await a technology that will make them more profitable for exploitation. 

Graybeal, F.T. 1982. Geology of the El Tiro area Silver Bell mining district, Pima County, Arizona. Advances in Geology of the Porphyry Copper Deposits Southwest North America. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ. 

In the case of lead arsenate (acid form), calcium arsenate, and sodium arsenate, the Pb-isotopic compositions closely match those of sulfides from porphyry copper deposits from southeastern Arizona, specifically from the Pima and Silver Bell districts (Bouse et al., 1999). Notably, other major historical producers of arsenic trioxide (e.g., Anaconda Copper Co., US Smelting Co., Jardine Mining Co.) used... 

USA (primarily Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah), 20% the former Soviet Union, 9% Canada, 8% China 8% andZambia, 5%. Presently, recycled scrap metal, or secondary copper, contribntes an additional 25 35% to this yearly output. Open-pit strip mining yields most of the copper ore, which is typically 0.4-1% in copper. Underground methods are used for deeper, vein-type deposits that have a significantly higher copper content (needed to offset the increased mining costs). 

Harbison, E. J. and Davidson, J. A., Oxygen in copper smelting, paper presented by Air Products Chemicals, Inc., at the Fall Meeting of the Arizona section of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, Dec. 1972. 

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