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METALS ORE: IRON ORE - COPPER ORE
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The percent of copper in these minerals is known as the "copper grade"
and its value is variable. In some deposits this grade is of 1 to 1.8%, and
often it is lower. In fact, most of the material extracted from mines has
such a low grade that is considered waste.
Our supplier the most bigger producer in the world, sells copper to its
clients in several formats. The most relevant product is the grade A
cathode, 99.99% pure copper, shaped as a big metal plate, which is
produced by electrowinning and electrorefining.
Another high purity copper format commercialized by our supplier is the
fire refined ingot (RAF) obtained after succesive smelting processes.
The red metal is used in its pure form to fabricate a broad range of
products, such as cables and pipes, but also as part of alloys in
combination with other elements, such as zinc, tin, silver, lead, silica,
berilium, aluminium...
The key to understand the intensive use of copper by mankind is in its
basic properties: it is a metal that can be handled cold and hot, with great
resistance to corrosion, of an attractive color, of high thermal and electric
conductivity, ideal for communication transmission, it is not magnetic and
it is completely recyclable.
These properties are transfered to the alloys using copper. The two more
important ones, and known since antiquity, are bronze, a very hard
material resulting from its combination with tin, and brass, copper with
zinc, easy to manipulate and resistant to corrosion. |
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