The main types of copper ores in the world are porphyry, sedimentary layered, magmatic sulfide, volcanic massive sulfide, iron oxide copper-gold, and skarn, accounting for 69.0%, 11.8%, 5.1%, 4.9%, 4.7%, and 2.2% of the world’s total resource reserves, or a total of 97.7%.
Porphyry copper ore is the most important copper resource in the world, and the associated gold, molybdenum or zinc also have large economic value. Ultra-large (more than 5 million tons) porphyry copper ore is centrally distributed in the Pacific Rim Orogenic Domain (Chile, Peru, the United States, Panama, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, etc.), the Tethys and Himalayan Orogenic Domain (China, Pakistan, etc.), and the ancient Asian Orogenic Domain (Mongolia, Kazakhstan, etc.), and the Pacific Rim Orogenic Domain, especially in the Andean Orogenic Belt of South America, is centrally distributed.
Mainly produced in the Central African mineralized area (Congo (DRC), Zambia, etc.) of sedimentary rock-type layered copper deposits have very significant economic value, but also the main source of cobalt. This kind of copper ore is also produced in Russia, Poland, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Chile, Australia and other countries.
Typical magmatic sulfide deposits include Norilsk Tarnach nickel-copper mine in Russia, Duluth copper-nickel mine in the U.S., Shodebury nickel-copper-platinum group element deposits in Canada, and Jinchuan copper-nickel mine in Gansu Province, China.
Typical deposits of volcanic massive sulfide are Nevsun and Corvo zinc-copper deposits in Portugal, etc. Typical deposits of iron oxide copper-gold are Olympic Dam copper-uranium-gold-rare earth-iron deposits in Australia.
Typical skarn-type deposits include Pumpkin Valley Copper Mine in the United States and Dongguashan Copper Mine in Tongling, Anhui Province, China.
