Analysis of the copper losses in all the production phases and their recycling potential on the example of Veliki Krivelj open pit

Abstract

Due to the fact that richer deposits and deposits situated at lower depths are mainly extracted at present day deeper and poorer deposits are in exploitation. This results in open pits being larger, the amount of excavated material increases and the final product is a small amount of the commodity, i.e. copper. Significant amount of copper is lost with waste from each technological phase. It is essential to conduct an analysis which would show how much copper is lost and then to determine is it possible to treat the waste as a technogene deposit, that is recycle it in order to recover additional amounts of copper. This article is an initial case study analysis of the cathode copper production from the ore mined during 2013. At Veliki Krivelj open pit copper mine operating within the RTB Bor Group. Practically, the article gives an overview of the copper amounts lost during excavation, flotation, metallurgical processing and finally during electrolytic refinement.