COPPER

• COPPER | PROCESS

  The solid copper comes from the most common types of ore, copper oxide and copper sulfide, which undergo two different processes, hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy, respectively, due to the different chemistries of the ore.

  1. Mining
  2. Crushing/Conveying
• COPPER | PROCESS (COPPER OXIDE ORES)

  Hydrometallurgy - This process uses aqueous (water-based) solutions to extract and purify copper from copper oxide ores at ordinary temperatures.
• COPPER | PROCESS (COPPER OXIDE ORES)

  1. Agglomeration - Pouring or Splashing of dilute sulfuric acid into the ores before the next step.
  2. Heap Leaching- Crushed ore is piled into a heap on top of an impenetrable layer, on a slight slope. The leaching reagent (dilute sulfuric acid) is sprayed through sprinklers on top of the heap pile and allowed to trickle down through the heap, where it dissolves the copper from the ore. This results in a “pregnant leach” solution of 60-70% copper.
• COPPER | PROCESS (COPPER OXIDE ORES)

  1. Solvent Extraction - Two immiscible (un-mixing) liquids are stirred and allowed to separate, causing the cooper to move from one liquid to the other.The two liquids are then allowed to separate based on solubility, with copper remaining in solution in the solvent, and impurities remaining in the leach solution. (The leftover leach solution is then recycled, by adding additional acid and sending it back to the sprinklers in the heap leaching process.). 
• COPPER | PROCESS (COPPER OXIDE ORES)

  1. Electrowinning - The last step is called electrowinning, a type of electrolysis.( copper is also considered as cathode ) In this step, an electrical current passes through an inert anode (positive electrode such as lead,tin, calcium) and Positively-charged copper ions (called cations) come out of solution and are plated onto a cathode (negative electrode) several days after days but usually up to 7 days resulting a 99.99% pure copper.
• COPPER | PROCESS (COPPER SULFIDE ORES)

  Pyrometallurgy - This process uses the extraction and purification of metals by processes involving the application of heat. 
• COPPER | PROCESS (COPPER SULFIDE ORES)

  1. Ball Mill - A machinery to secondary crushed the ores to smaller pieces and became a fine sand texture.
• COPPER | PROCESS (COPPER SULFIDE ORES)

  2. Froth floatation - Which is used to separate the copper minerals from the gangue. Chemical reagents called “collectors”(xanthate coating) are added to the slurry and bind to the copper particles, making them hydrophobic, (or waterproof.)
• COPPER | PROCESS (COPPER SULFIDE ORES)

  2. Froth floatation - Pipes are used to blow air into the bottom of the tank to create bubbles, which rise to the surface, taking the waterproof copper sulfide particles along. The froth of copper-rich bubbles at the top of the tank is then skimmed off for further processing. The gangue sinks to the bottom of the tank to be removed or disposed of as mine tailings.
• COPPER | PROCESS (COPPER SULFIDE ORES)

  1. Thickening - The froth is poured into large tanks called thickeners. The bubbles break and solids from the froth solution settle at the bottom of the tank.
  2. Filtering - The solids are then filtered to remove excess water, which can be reused in processing additional batches of sulfide ore. And the final product is then sent to the smelter.
• COPPER | PROCESS (COPPER SULFIDE ORES)

  1. Smelting - the copper concentrate is first sent through the smelting furnace to be heated up to 2,300 °F and converted into molten liquid. The heated liquid is poured into a slag-settling furnace.
  2. Electrowinning - Converting anode slabs into cathode results in 99.9% pure copper.
• COPPER | STRUCTURE

  Solid copper can be described as the arrangement of copper atoms in a face-centered-cubic (fcc). Copper and its alloys have a range of  yellow/gold/red colors and when polished develop a bright metallic luster. It consists of atoms arranged in a cube where each corner of the cube has a fraction of an atom with six additional full atoms positioned at the center of each cube face. Purpose of this is to maximize the packing efficiency and stability of material.
• COPPER | PROPERTIES

  Copper is a tough, ductile and malleable material. These properties make copper extremely suitable for tube forming, wire drawing, spinning and deep drawing. The other key properties exhibited by Copper and its alloys include:

  1.  Excellent heat conductivity
  2.  Excellent electrical conductivity
  3.  Good corrosion resistance
  4.  Good biofouling resistance/antimicrobial property
  5.  Good machinability
  6. The melting point for pure Copper is 1083ºC
• COPPER | PERFORMANCE/USES

  Copper is mostly used as an electrical conductor in many categories of both electrical and electronics.

  1. Communication/circuitry wirings
  2. Microchips
  3. Power distributor
  4. Motors
  5. Welding
  6. Printed Circuit Board
  7. Architectural Applications
  8. Door knobs
  9. Roofing systems
  10. Cooking Utensils
  11. Coins
  12. Jewelry