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Copper mining process

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Copper mining in Zambia

Copper mining is the lifeblood of the Zambian economy, generating three-quarters of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. Copper is equally important to western and newly industrialising countries such as China, where it is used for electrical wiring, phone and internet lines, computers and cars. Increased demand for these goods in countries such as China has resulted in a boom in international copper prices reminiscent of the late 1960s and 1970s, when Zambia was a middle-income country, with one of the highest gross domestic products (GDPs) in Africa. With its large reserves of high-quality copper, Zambia should be benefiting handsomely from the current boom.

In copper mining processing,we provide the machines for crushing and grinding processing. ball mill,jaw crusher is the most used machines in copper mining industry.

Mine workers at NFC Africa mining shaft at Chimbishi

The copper mining industry, thus defined, has two types of final product: ores and concentrates. Ores are, of course, produced by all copper mines, but in most cases the ores as taken from the earth are not sufficiently rich in metal or simple in mineralogy to be smelted directly. Hence most ores are subjected to a preliminary treatment designed to expedite the subsequent extraction of their metallic content. This treatment, variously known as ore dressing, concentrating, milling or beneficiating, involves, essentially, reducing the amount of barren rock in which the metal is imbedded and, when the ore contains metals other than copper, separating the important metallic constituents of the ore into products in each of which one metal predominates. The products resulting from this treatment are known as concentrates because, basically, they consist of ore that has been concentrated into smaller bulk through the removal of waste.