Copper ore beneficiation process is mainly crushing – ball milling – classification – flotation – selection, etc. For rare polymetallic ores containing nickel, cobalt, molybdenum, gold, etc., the rough copper concentrate and then flotation of nickel concentrate, cobalt concentrate, molybdenum concentrate, gold concentrate, respectively.
Major international copper mining enterprises include Codelco of Chile, BHP BILLITON of Australia, Freeport MacMoRan of the United States, AngloAmeirican of the United Kingdom, and Xstrata of Switzerland, while major smelters include Codelco, Freeport, Xstrata, and Jiangtong, Tongling and Jinchuan Groups in China. and Jinchuan Group.
According to the Commodity Research Institute of the United Kingdom, the world copper ore production in 2012 was 12.966 million tons (including copper), an increase of 3.6% year-on-year. Among them, Chile’s production still dominates, amounting to 3.511 million tons (including copper), accounting for 27.1% of the world. China ranked second with 1.6 million tons. Third place went to Peru with 1.148 million tons.
Copper concentrate supply pressure comes mainly from slow supply development – In 2012 copper concentrate supply pressure came mainly from declining ore grades.
In the last two decades, Chilean copper ore grades have declined from 1.61% to 0.87%, and globally from 1.45% to 1.12% over the same period. Large Chilean mining companies expect that the average grade of Chilean copper ore could be 0.67% by 2020.
Among the large copper mines being mined in Chile, El Tesoro has an average grade of 1.57%, Los Bronces 1.40%, Escondida 1.20%, Collahuasi 0.80%, Codelco 0.78%, Los Pelambre 0.71% and Esperanza 0.66%.
