X41 Copper Mine, Enterprise Copper Mine.
Mineralisation occurs generally as breccia hosted massive to disseminated chalcopyrite in “silica dolomite” altered pyritic dolomitic siltstone.

Mount Isa Open Pit.
Copper mineralisation occurs generally as breccia hosted massive to disseminated copper minerals in “silica dolomite” altered pyritic dolomitic siltstone. Approximately half of the Mineral Resources are defined by primary chalcopyrite, the remainder being oxidised or partially oxidised, with a minor amount of supergene chalcocite mineralisation.

Copper ore is mined in the X41 and Enterprise underground mines using traditional sub-level open stoping methods. Once the ore is loosened by drilling and blasting, it is mucked, crushed and hauled to the surface where it is put through the concentrating process.

Copper ore is mined in the X41 and Enterprise underground mines, where it is roughly crushed, then hoisted to the surface for processing. From here, it is fed through a series of ball mills that grind the rock into a fine dust.

This dust is then mixed with water and reagents in the concentrator’s flotation circuit. The reagents help to separate the valuable mineral content from waste rock and iron sulphide particles like pyrite – or “fools gold”. Air is forced through the slurry creating bubbles, which float to the surface and attract and bind to the copper particles. The glossy, mineral-laden “froth” is then skimmed off the top and dried. The greenish powder that remains once the water content of the froth has evaporated is copper concentrate. But it’s not pure copper yet, it’s a copper iron sulphide, made up of about 35 per cent pure copper.

Copper concentrate is fed into the ISASMELT furnace, where it is heated to 1185 degrees Celsius. This process melts the c ........