Leading countries in copper production. Copper mining technologies and its place in modern industry

Copper is one of the first metals that people began to master, the reason for this is its availability and low melting point. In nature, copper occurs in the form of nuggets much more often than gold, silver or iron. All these factors led to the fact that the development of copper was the next stage in the evolution of mankind, known as "Copper Age".

Today, copper is one of (if not the most) valuable non-ferrous metal in the world. Copper has high electrical and thermal conductivity (the second highest electrical conductivity after silver), which explains the unlimited use of copper in the development and design of electrical systems, heat-dissipating parts of various installations, etc.

However, the extraction of copper ore and the subsequent production of copper concentrates is a very labor-intensive process, since the copper content in the ore usually does not exceed, at best, 10%, while the more common value of copper concentration in the ore ranges from 0.5% to 3%. Another problem in obtaining finished copper concentrates is that copper is often found in combination with zinc, lead, gold, silver and other metals, which also affects the complexity of the copper ore beneficiation process.

Main deposits of copper ores in Russia concentrated in the Urals, eastern Siberia and the North Caucasus. The list of the main Ural deposits located in the Sverdlovsk region includes Kirovogradskoye, Revdinskoye, Degtyarskoye and Krasnouralskoye. Copper mining is also carried out in such regions as Chelyabinsk and Orenburg. Significant copper deposits are concentrated in the Krasnoyarsk Territory: Norilsk, Talnakh, Oktyabrskoye deposits.

The largest and most unique copper deposit in Russia, which is located in the Chita region and is known as - Udokan field. The copper ore reserve of the Udokan deposit is approximately 24.6 million tons, and ranks third in the world. The field got its name because of its geographical location, located 30 kilometers south of the Novaya Chara railway station Trans-Baikal Territory on the Udokan ridge. The rock of the Udokan deposit is copper pechanniks, the ores are almost monometallic copper and contain only a small admixture of silver. The uniqueness of this deposit is manifested in the fact that mineral composition The mined ore is characterized by exceptional consistency. The deposit itself was discovered in 1949 by an expedition of the first main directorate of the USSR Ministry of Ecology. However, due to incorrect conclusions about the depth of copper ore, further research was not continued.

The Udokan pilot industrial plant (OPU) was put into operation by the state commission on February 15, 2006, and included mining, processing and hydrometallurgical equipment for processing non-ferrous, ferrous, rare ores, noble metals to obtain commercial products.

In 2008, the license for the right to develop the deposit was sold to the Metalloinvest holding for 15 billion rubles. After 5.5 years, the company committed to extract 12 million tons of ore per year from the deposit, and after seven years - 36 million tons. To build infrastructure to ensure high productivity of further copper mining, Metalloinvest promised to create a consortium with the state corporation Russian Technologies.

By 2010, about 15 thousand meters of verification, geological and geomechanical wells were drilled, more than 1.2 thousand meters of ditches and more than 2.5 thousand meters of underground mine workings were tested, more than five thousand furrow and core samples were taken for analytical work. Based on the results, it was established that the copper reserve of the Udokan deposit is 25.7 million tons of copper, 2.7 billion tons of ore with an average metal content of 0.95%. The development of the Udokan deposit is carried out using open-pit mining.

Unique deposits on a global scale include Talnakhskoe And Oktyabrskoye deposits of copper-nickel ores. Many geologists consider the Oktyabrskoye field to be a continuation of the single Talnakh field. The Talkhanskoye deposit is located in the north-west of the Siberian platform, it was discovered in 1960 by the Norilsk geological exploration expedition, three years later the excavation of the shaft of the Mayak mine began. The mine itself became fully operational on April 22, 1965. The deposit is currently being developed underground. The length of the mine field is 12 km, maximum width– 3.5 km. The occurrence of the rocks is monoclinal, dipping to the northeast at angles from 5 to 15°. Three types of ores are distinguished: disseminated in parent rocks, continuous sulfide ores in the base of the intrusion, disseminated-veined in exocontact rocks. The ore composition is dominated by pyrrhotite, pentalandite and chalcopyrite.

The license to develop the deposit belongs to OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel. In 2011, the company produced from the deposit: nickel - 55.9 thousand tons, copper 72 thousand tons.

Degtyarskoye field located in the Ural copper-pyrite belt, was discovered in 1888, and put into industrial development in 1914. The ribbon-shaped ore deposit can be traced at a distance of about 5 km and pinches out at a depth of more than 600 m. The main ore mineral is pyrite. The deposit was developed underground, but was closed due to unprofitability, although the ore was not mined.

Thus, based on the dynamics and chronology of the development and study of copper deposits, we can say that significant interest has been and is being given to copper. Despite all the difficulties, copper deposits are one of the primary deposits to be developed, due to the widespread use of copper in industry and everyday life person and society.

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Copper has been known to man since ancient times; people learned to mine it and use it to create tools, utensils, and jewelry. The popularity of this metal today is due to its high electrical conductivity. Therefore, it is used in the manufacture of cables, electrical wires, in industry, and electrical engineering.

In Russia, copper mining is carried out constantly, without stopping, new mines are opening, and ore processing technologies are being improved.

Geological features of production

Copper is not contained in earth's crust V pure form, it is one of the components of the ore. There are several types of copper-containing minerals:

• chalcocite, also called copper luster, is a mineral that, in addition to copper, contains sulfur and sometimes silver. Such ore is considered rich because it contains up to 79% pure metal.;
• chalcopyrite is a mineral containing copper, iron and sulfur, it is the most common ore in nature, basically all production is carried out on the basis of the development of chalcopyrite (pyrite) deposits;
• cuprite is the mineral ore with the highest metal content, but it is rare in nature, and discovering a deposit is considered a great success.

Since copper mining has been carried out since ancient times, the deposits have become noticeably depleted. If previously the content of copper ore in the soil was considered to be more than 5%, today mines with a content of 0.5% are being actively developed.

This speaks not only about the depletion of the rock, but also about the high technologies of ore processing and the variety of enrichment methods, as a result of which the maximum metal can be extracted from the ore.

The geography of copper deposits is quite extensive; they are present on all continents. According to experts, 5 billion tons can be mined in all currently explored areas. This is a low figure, but it does not at all indicate the disappearance of the metal.

Secondary processing of copper plays an important role. This metal is easy to melt and can be easily separated from various alloys; therefore, the industry of processing copper products is widely developed.

Repeated smelting is carried out with minor losses, and several times less resources (labor, energy, material) are spent than during extraction.

Main copper deposits in Russia

How it's done: copper mining

In terms of proven reserves of metal in the bowels of Russia, it ranks 7th, while it has only 3% (20 million tons) of the total volume of copper deposits. In terms of production volumes, Russia is also in seventh place, but accounts for 4% of the global volume.

The largest deposits are concentrated in the Taimyr administrative district, among them the following are actively being developed:

• Norilsk-1;
• Oktyabrskoe;
• Talnakhskoe.

There are also active deposits in the Volga and Ural federal districts:

• Uchalinskoe;
• Sibayskoe;
• Gayskoe;
• Yubileinoe was recently discovered and is currently only being prepared for development;
• Podolskoe - has large deposits of copper ore - is mothballed and is in the state reserve.

The Chita region is also rich in copper; one of the largest deposits not only in Russia, but also in the world is located here - the Udokan deposit. About 15 million tons are mined here annually, but it is at the moment is not being developed at full capacity, the reason for this is the lack of infrastructure.

There are no good transport links, considerable distance from processing and enrichment plants. In the near future, Metalloinvest, the company that owns the right to develop the Udokan deposit, plans to double production volumes.

There is an economic sense in measures to create a comprehensive infrastructure - the Udokan deposit consists mostly of copper sandstones, which have an almost monometallic composition with minor silver impurities, which greatly simplifies the enrichment process.

The Talnakh mine is located in the northwestern part of the Siberian Platform. It is also one of the largest deposits in Russia in terms of volumes of copper ore, the peculiarity of which is the constancy of the composition with a predominance of chalcopyrite.

Mining here is carried out underground, the total length of the mines is 12 km, and the greatest width is recorded at 3.5 km. In parallel with copper, nickel is mined at this deposit.

One of the oldest deposits in Russia, which began to be developed industrially- Degtyarskoe. It is located on the Ural ridge, in industrial development since 1914, although it was explored back in 1888.

Currently, its development has been suspended due to the low metal content in the ore, however, according to estimates, honey-bearing ore has not yet been mined here. But since the development of this mine is carried out underground, and it is quite expensive, the mines are currently not profitable.

How is the copper ore mining process carried out?

Depending on the depth at which the copper ore deposits are located, the mining process can be carried out in different ways: underground and open.

Copper alloys in various places production

Underground involves the construction of mines that go deep underground, and their length sometimes reaches several kilometers. The mines are equipped with elevator cages that deliver workers and equipment underground, and also serve as a lifting mechanism for the mined ore to the surface.

Under the ground, the rock is destroyed by special drilling mechanisms, which are equipped with large cone-shaped spikes; they cut into the soil, destroying it. Then, with the help of buckets, the rock is collected and loaded onto vehicles.

To ensure safe operation underground, intermediate stations are created for miners, and above-ground structures are created - towers that ensure the operation of elevators. After the rock is delivered to the surface, it is sent to processing and processing plants.

The open-pit mining method is used when deposits are located deep, up to 400 - 500 meters. First removed top layer waste rock, then the copper ore is excavated. That's enough hard layer and explosive devices are used to facilitate the process.

Drilling rigs place explosives at a certain depth; after the explosion, the destroyed rock is loaded using excavators onto dump trucks and removed from the quarry. Not far from the quarry there is an ore processing station, which is delivered here by dump trucks. Further processing rock carried out in a standard way, which is also used for ore mined underground.

How copper production is carried out

After copper ore is mined, it is delivered to the processing plant, where at the first stage it is crushed, since sometimes the pieces of rock reach one meter. This happens on powerful crushing machines that can process up to 4 thousand tons of rock per hour.

The gyratory installation consists of two cones, one of which is fixed, and has wide plates made of high-strength steel. At the exit from the crusher, fine-grained ore is obtained, up to 150 mm, which is then sent along a conveyor to an ore storage facility or production.

Further enrichment of copper includes two more stages of grinding in huge mills, from there it is sent to flotation machines, which have a working bowl volume of up to 300 m 3. Here the rock is mixed with water and a special reagent that promotes the formation of pulp - foam to which the metal sticks, and the waste rock settles.

Under the influence of air flow, bubbles with metal particles are blown out of the liquid and sent to the intermediate hopper, where they burst and the metal settles. Then the composition enters thickeners, where it accumulates and thickens to an almost solid substance (up to 65%), after which it is sent for filtration and to a press plant.

At the end of the enrichment cycle, purified ore is obtained, which has a consistency similar to sand. Further, production is carried out at metallurgical plants. From the prepared ore, which still contains a large percentage of sulfur (up to 50%) and other metals: gold, silver, iron, it is necessary to extract copper and precious metals with minimal losses.

For this, a pyrometallurgical method is used, which involves three stages:

• melting for matte:
• matte conversion;
• electrolytic refining.

Production begins with the roasting of ore in furnaces, during which part of the sulfur is oxidized, and part is removed with gases. Matte smelting is carried out at temperatures up to 1300 o, resulting in two products - an alloy of iron and copper (matte) and slag.

Afterwards, the matte is sent to envelope installations, where the liquid alloy is purged compressed air, under this influence, ferric oxide is formed, which interacts with the flux and is removed from the composition. The result is blister copper, the composition of which still includes up to 1.5% impurities (mostly precious metals remain); they can be removed by electrolytic refining.

Production is carried out in special baths where cathodes are placed - thin sheets of pure copper, anodes and sulfuric acid, which acts as an electrolyte. When submitting electric current Copper particles collect at the cathode, and gold and silver particles settle at the bottom, they are called sludge. The output is the purest metal with a minimum amount of impurities - up to 0.05%.

Video: Bazhenov rating - copper mining

Copper is one of the first metals to be widely used by humans.

The fusibility of copper made it the first metal smelted by man. It became the basis of the emerging alloy metallurgy, creating tools Bronze Age. Centuries later, copper's high electrical conductivity made it a prime material for electrical wires and generators. She made the second industrial revolution possible by laying the foundations of electrical engineering.

Mikheevskoye deposit of copper-porphyry ores in Chelyabinsk region- one of the largest copper deposits in Russia: the international independent analytical consulting group CRU Mikheevskoye is included in the list of the 50 largest copper deposits in the world.

1. Currently, there are technologies that make it possible to extract copper from ore with a content of 0.4%! They do it like this.

2. Quarry.

3. Porphyry copper ores here contain copper, gold, and silver.

One of the largest copper mining and processing plants in Russia was built at the deposit to process up to 18 million tons of copper ore per year.

Rock explosion.

5. To loosen the rock mass, drilling rigs drill holes into which explosives are placed.

6. After the explosion, excavators begin loading ore into dump trucks

7. Huge Komatsu PC4000 mining excavators with a bucket volume of 22 cubic meters - reliable, highly productive and efficient - extract copper ore from the quarry.

9. Komatsu dump trucks transport large pieces of ore up to 1 m in diameter to the crushing complex located in the quarry at around 220 m, and also store waste rock in dumps. Bulldozers rake up waste rock, clearing the area and forming dumps.

10. It’s very impressive when a colossus weighing more than 300 tons rushes past you at a speed of 50 km/h!

11. Huge machines bring the loosened rock to the “Gyratory Crusher” with a capacity of 4 thousand tons of ore per hour.

12. Unloading.

13. Dump trucks fill up ore from both sides. After this, the crusher crushes the rock into pieces up to 150 mm to obtain small fractions

14. Dumping one hundred and eighty tons of ore into the crusher.

15. A gyratory crusher consists of two cones, between which the product is crushed. The fixed cone has an internal working surface lined with wear-resistant steel plates.

16. From the crusher, the ore is transferred to a 1,414 m long moving conveyor, which transports it to the processing plant.

17. But, part of the ore is poured into the ore storage.

18. The plant can operate on ore reserves from the ore warehouse for three days.

19. From the warehouse, ore is supplied directly to two conveyors using apron feeders, which lead to the processing plant.

20. The ore goes through 2 stages of grinding in huge mills: first, large ore is crushed using grinding balls, then pebble ore is crushed in three crushers.

21. Mill.

23. Foundation of flotation machines.

24. Here we get pulp.

25. Pulp - a suspension of particles of valuable ore and water + flotation reagent. Flotation reagent wets valuable ore particles, but does not wet waste rock particles. After mixing, air is supplied to the pulp. Air bubbles float up and catch particles of valuable ore.

This foam carries valuable ore.

The pulp then enters a settling tank, where the waste rock particles settle.

26. When a particle of valuable ore coated with a flotation reagent encounters an air bubble, water, without wetting the flotation reagent, rolls off the surface of the particle. And the particle attaches to the bubble. The grains of waste rock are wetted by water and do not attach to the bubbles. Air bubbles float up along with the valuable rock.

The process is constantly monitored. For manual pulp analysis, the operator needs 4-5 hours. The machine carries out this operation in minutes.

27. Flotation machines workshop.

28. The cycle is closed. Some pipes carry enriched ore, others carry waste rock. Foam with valuable ore is moved into a receiving hopper. The bubbles burst and the ore settles in the hopper.

31. The entire system is controlled by three operators.

32. The resulting concentrate enters thickeners and is concentrated to 60–65% solids, after which it is sent to presses for filtration.

34. At the end, the waste rock is shipped to the tailings pond. The tailings pond has a closed cycle and water after clarification is again supplied to the factory after
reuse.

35. I was pleasantly surprised at how this production works. Everything is clear and coherent. I really liked the cleanliness and concern for the environment, which is very rare.

Trees and shrubs are planted wherever possible. There is no smog or exhaust. The air above the plant is transparent. I left with regret that I didn’t have time to shoot a lot of things. I'll have to ask to visit again.

Copper, actively used in almost all industries, is mined from various ores, the most common of which is bornite. The popularity of this copper ore is explained not only by the high copper content in its composition, but also by significant reserves of bornite in the bowels of our planet.

Copper ore deposits

Copper ores are a collection of minerals that, in addition to copper, contain other elements that shape their properties, in particular nickel. The copper ore category includes those types of ores that contain such an amount of this metal that it is economically feasible to extract it by industrial methods. These conditions are satisfied by ores whose copper content is in the range of 0.5–1%. Our planet has a reserve of copper-containing resources, the bulk of which (90%) are copper-nickel ores.

Most of the copper ore reserves in Russia are located in Eastern Siberia, on Kola Peninsula, in the Ural region. Chile is on the list of leaders in total reserves of such ores; deposits are also being developed in the following countries: the USA (porphyry ores), Kazakhstan, Zambia, Poland, Canada, Armenia, Zaire, Peru (porphyry ores), Congo, Uzbekistan. Experts have calculated that large copper deposits in all countries contain a total of about 680 million tons. Naturally, the question of how copper is mined in various countries, must be considered separately.

All copper ore deposits are divided into several categories, differing in genetic and industrial-geological characteristics:

• stratiform group represented by copper shales and sandstones;
• pyrite ores, which include native and vein copper;
• hydrothermal, including ores called porphyry copper;
• igneous, which are represented by the most common ores of the copper-nickel type;
• skarn type ores;
• carbonate, represented by iron-copper and carbonatite ores.

In Russia, it is carried out mainly in shale and sand deposits, in which the ore is contained in copper pyrite, copper-nickel and porphyry copper forms.

Natural compounds containing copper

Pure copper, which is what its nuggets represent, is found in nature in very small quantities. Copper is mainly found in nature in the form of various compounds, the most common of which are the following.

• Bornite is a mineral that got its name in honor of the Czech scientist I. Born. This is sulfide ore chemical composition which is characterized by its formula – Cu5FeS4. Bornite has other names: variegated pyrite, copper purple. In nature, this ore is presented in two polymorphic forms: low-temperature tetragonal-scalenohedral (temperature less than 228 degrees) and high-temperature cubic-hexaoctahedral (more than 228 degrees). This mineral can have different types depending on its origin. Thus, exogenous bornite is a secondary early sulfide, which is very unstable and is easily destroyed by weathering. The second type, endogenous bornite, is characterized by variable chemical composition, which may contain chalcocite, galena, sphalerite, pyrite and chalcopyrite. Theoretically, minerals of these types can contain from 25.5% sulfur, more than 11.2% iron and over 63.3% copper, but in practice this content of these elements is never maintained.
• Chalcopyrite is a mineral whose chemical composition is characterized by the formula CuFeS2. Chalcopyrite, which is of hydrothermal origin, was previously called copper pyrite. Along with sphalerite and galena, it is included in the category of polymetallic ores. This mineral, which, in addition to copper, contains iron and sulfur, is formed as a result of metamorphic processes and can be present in two types of copper ores: contact-metasomatic type (skarns) and mountain metasomatic (greisens).
• Chalcocite is a sulfide ore, the chemical composition of which is characterized by the formula Cu2S. This ore contains a significant amount of copper (79.8%) and sulfur (20.2%). This ore is often referred to as “copper lustre”, due to the fact that its surface appears as a shiny metal, ranging in shades from lead-gray to completely black. In copper-bearing ores, chalcocite appears as dense or fine-grained inclusions.

In nature, there are also rarer minerals that contain copper.

• Cuprite (Cu2O), an oxide mineral, can often be found in places where there is malachite and native copper.
• Covelline is a sulfide rock formed metasomatically. This mineral, whose copper content is 66.5%, was first discovered at the beginning of the last century in the vicinity of Vesuvius. Now covellite is actively mined in deposits in countries such as the USA, Serbia, Italy, and Chile.
• Malachite is a mineral well known to everyone as an ornamental stone. Surely everyone has seen products made from this beautiful mineral in the photo or even owns them. Malachite, which is very popular in Russia, is copper carbonate or copper dihydrocoxcarbonate, which belongs to the category of polymetallic copper-containing ores. The malachite found indicates that there are deposits of other minerals containing copper nearby. In our country, a large deposit of this mineral is located in the Nizhny Tagil region; previously it was mined in the Urals, but now its reserves there are significantly depleted and are not being developed.
• Azurite is a mineral that, due to its blue also called "copper glaze". It is characterized by a hardness of 3.5–4 units; its main deposits are developed in Morocco, Namibia, Congo, England, Australia, France and Greece. Azurite is often intergrown with malachite and occurs in areas where deposits of sulfide-type copper-bearing ores are located nearby.

Copper production technologies

To extract copper from the minerals and ores we discussed above, modern industry uses three technologies: hydrometallurgical, pyrometallurgical and electrolysis. The pyrometallurgical method of copper enrichment, which is the most common, uses chalcopyrite as a raw material. This technology involves performing several sequential operations. At the first stage, copper ore is enriched, for which oxidative roasting or flotation is used.

The flotation method is based on the fact that the gangue and its parts containing copper are wetted differently. When the entire mass of rock is placed in a bath with a liquid composition in which air bubbles are formed, the part that contains mineral elements is transported by these bubbles to the surface, adhering to them. As a result, a concentrate is collected on the surface of the bath - blister copper, which contains from 10 to 35% of this metal. It is from such a powdery concentrate that what follows occurs.

Oxidative roasting looks somewhat different, with the help of which copper ores containing a significant amount of sulfur are enriched. This technology involves heating the ore to a temperature of 700–8000, as a result of which sulfides are oxidized and the sulfur content in copper ore is reduced by almost half. After such roasting, the enriched ore is melted in reverberatory or shaft furnaces at a temperature of 14500, resulting in matte - an alloy consisting of copper and iron sulfides.

The properties of the resulting matte should be improved; for this, it is blown in horizontal converters without supplying additional fuel. As a result of such side blowing, iron and sulfides are oxidized, iron oxide is converted to slag, and sulfur is converted to SO2.

Blister copper, which is obtained as a result of this process, contains up to 91% of this metal. To make the metal even purer, it is necessary to refining the copper, for which it is necessary to remove foreign impurities from it. This is achieved using fire refining technology and an acidified solution of copper sulfate. This refining of copper is called electrolytic; it allows one to obtain metal with a purity of 99.9%.