Chile copper

KEYWORDS Chile, copper, atacamite, anomalies. Pleistocene... 

This method was proved effective and feasible by some successful rescues. One of them was the rescue of Chile copper mine in San Jose, collapse happened in the hole of 510 meters from the earth in 2010, 33 miners were trapped. After the accident happened, three holes were drilled to fix the miners position and supply them water, foods and some other necessities. Sixty-nine days later, the trapped men were rescued by a broadened hole drilled into the earth. The successful rescue... 

North American production continues to increase but the world market also reaps the benefits of mining in many other countries, in particular Chile copper recycling becomes important. 

Long pipelines are used to transport concentrate. At Cuajone, in Peru, an open launder is used to transport taUings from an altitude of 3000 m (10,000 ft) down to sea level. The potential energy drop is used to overcome the friction losses of the launder. In Escondida, Chile, copper concentrate flows by gravity from an altitude in excess of 2500 m (8200 ft) above sea level over a distance in excess of 200 km (125 mi) to a port at sea level. 

Large copper ore deposits are found in the U.S., Chile, Zambia, Zaire, Peru, and Canada. The most important copper ores are the sulfides, the oxides, and carbonates. From these, copper is obtained by smelting, leaching, and by electrolysis. 

Japan, Canada, and the United States accounted for 70% of the 1995 estimated world production of 2000 t (Table 5). At least 100 t of selenium was also available to Western markets from the former Soviet bloc. Selenium production is expected to rise in South America, particularly Chile, as the copper industry continues rapid expansion. A considerable amount of unrefined selenium is also shipped to Chile and the Philippines for conversion to final commercial product by either hydrometaHurgical or distillation processes. 

The exploitation of large ore bodies in Chile and Pern has made South America the world s largest producer of copper. The United States is the second largest, followed by Zaire and Zambia, and the CIS. Other important deposits are found in southern Oceania (Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Indonesia), Canada, Mexico, and Poland. 

The United States is largely self-sufficient with respect to copper, meeting any shortfall by imports. AustraHa and the CIS consume most of their production on the domestic market. Japan and Western Europe import substantial quantities of copper in the form of concentrates, bHster, and refined copper. World mine, smelter, and refining capacities in 1989 are given in Table 6. Copper industries in Chile, Pern, Zaire, and Zambia are nationalized. 

Figure 8-3. Copper and molybdenum-containing ore being mined by Codelco in Chile.

Silver is widely distributed in sulfide ores of which silver glance (argentite), Ag2S, is the most important. Native silver is sometimes associated with these ores as a result of their chemical reduction, while the action of salt water is probably responsible for their conversion into hom silver , AgCl, which is found in Chile and New South Wales. The Spanish Americas provided most of the world s silver for the three centuries after about 1520, to be succeeded in the nineteenth century by Russia. Appreciable quantities are now obtained as a byproduct in the production of other metals such as copper. 

About one-third of the copper used is secondary copper (i.e. scrap) but the annual production of new metal is nearly 8 million tonnes, the chief sources (1993) being Chile (22%), the USA (20%), the former Soviet Union (9%), Canada and China (7.5% each) and Zambia (5%). The major use is as an electrical conductor but it is also widely employed in coinage alloys as well as the traditional bronze (Cu plus 7-10% Sn), brass (Cu-Zn), and special alloys such as Monel (Ni-Cu). 

Major portion of US reserves occur in Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. In Canada, British Columbia holds the richest reserves of molybdenum. Central and south American molybdenum reserves are found mainly in copper porphyry deposits. Chile s Chuquicamata and El Teniente deposits are two of the largest deposits in the world, and account for 85% of the country s molybdenum reserves. 

Copper ore is mined in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres but is primarily processed and consumed by countries in the Northern Hemisphere. The U.S. is both a major producer (second only to Chile) and consumer of copper.1... 

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). 

Liver, gall bladder, kidney Shorebirds Chile November 1981-March 1982 near abandoned copper mine liver vs. stomach contents 11-15 DW 137... 

Vermeer, K. and J.C. Castilla. 1991. High cadmium residues observed during a pilot study in shorebirds and their prey downstream from the El Salvador copper mine, Chile. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 46 242-248. 

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). 

Most of the oxide copper deposits are located in the former Republic of Zaire (Katanga) and Zambia. Only a few deposits are located in Chile, Peru, Canada and the United States. From most of the south and North American deposits, oxide copper is recovered using a hydrometallurgical method. 

Most operating plants that treat oxide copper and copper-cobalt ores are found in Central Africa and Southern Africa regions. A few operations exist in Chile, Brazil and Peru, where they treat mixed oxide sulphide ores or oxide copper gold ore. 

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. 

The main sources of rhenium are the molybdenite and coliunbite ores. Some rhenium is recovered as a by-product of the smelting of copper sulfide (CuS) ores. Molybdenum sulfide (MoSj) is the main ore and is usually associated with igneous rocks and, at times, metaUic-like deposits. Molybdenite is found in Chile, as well as in the states of New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado in the United States. 

Surface geochemical anomalies in northern Chile product of the extended metallogenesis of buried copper deposits... 

Fig. 1. Distribution of copper deposits in northern Chile including those containing atacamite in the oxide zone. DFZ is the Domeyko Fault Zone and ACL is Antofagasta-Calama Lineament. The land between the High Andes and the coast is the hyper-arid central Atacama Desert.

Fig. 2. Geochronology of supergene processes for copper deposits in northern Chile (modified from Reich et al. 2009).

Cameron, E.M., Leybourne, M.I., Palacios, C. 2007. Atacamite in the oxide zone of copper deposits in northern Chile Involvement of deep formation waters Mineralium Deposita, 42, 205-218. 

Palacios, C., Guerra, N., Townley, B., Lahsen, A. Parada, M. 2005. Copper geochemistry in salt from evaporate soils, Coastal Range of the Atacama Desert, northern Chile an exploration tool for blind Cu deposits. Geochemistry Exploration, Environment, Analysis, 5, 371-378. 

---