CSA mine
| CSA mine | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
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| other names | CSA mine | ||
| Mining technology | Underground mining | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | Glencore | ||
| Start of operation | 1872 | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Copper , silver , lead , zinc | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 31 ° 24 '3 " S , 145 ° 48' 41.7" E | ||
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| Location | Cobar | ||
| State | New South Wales | ||
| Country | Australia | ||
The CSA Mine is an underground copper - silver mine located 14 kilometers northwest of Cobar , New South Wales , Australia . It is operated by Cobar Management , a subsidiary of the Swiss company Glencore International .
The CSA mine is the largest mine in the historic Cobar mining region, extracting more than 1 million tons of ore containing 29 percent copper annually .
history
The copper deposit was discovered in the spring of 1870 by three prospectors on a Billabong between the Darling River and Lachlan River . In 1871 the Cobar Mining Company was formed , which later became the Great Cobar Copper Mining Company Ltd. and merged with the South Cobar Mine in 1876 . After the discovery of the rich copper deposits, further mines were built in this area. This was also due to the fact that the price of copper rose enormously in 1872. In 1876 the mining operations were stopped, in 1882 the mining operations were resumed and in 1889 it was abandoned. In 1905 the CSA mine was put back into operation. In 1909 the mine was closed again and reopened in 1910. In 1919 the mine could be connected to a railway line. A fire in the mountain in 1920 put an end to mining and the smelter's operation. The fire burned until 1936 and until 1962 there was only a small amount of ore extracted from this mine.
The plans for a new mining began in 1964 when the company Broken Hill South took over the mine and new shafts docked . It was officially inaugurated in 1966. In addition to copper-gold mining , zinc - lead- ore was also mined and transported to the smelting works in Port Kembla .
In 1980 Conzinc Riotinto Australia Pty Ltd (CRA) took over Broken Hill South Ltd , including Cobar Mines Pty Ltd , the operator of the CSA mine at the time . CRA decided to only produce copper in 1991 and sold it to Shamrock Mines in 1993 . In 1993 it was bought by Golden Shamrock Mines Ltd (GSM) to Ashanti Goldfields Corporation (Ashanti). Ashanti wanted to sell it because it needed funds for another engagement in Ghana , but this failed and the mine was closed from 1997 to 1998.
The Glencore International AG subsequently acquired the CSA Mine and transferred the business to the Cobar Management Pty Ltd. Today zinc, lead, silver and copper are mined and produced.
geology
The ore deposit is located to the east in the Cobar Basin , which was formed in Devonian about 350 million years ago in faults in the sedimentary basin over millions of years.
The ore body of the CSA mine was formed as hydrothermal solutions circulated through cool rocks and metals and sulfides precipitated. Metals such as copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver were loosened from deep rock layers such as granite and pressed upwards under pressure. These waters penetrated weak zones, faults and crevices in the rock layers. These solutions moved along the rocks, mixed, cooled, reacted and deposited. The existing rocks had been deposited as mud, clay and sand 30 million years ago and the deeper deposits were diagenetically pressed and consolidated into sand , clay , limestone and volcanic rocks . The movement of plate tectonics also influenced these processes.
There are four geological mineral formations in the CSA Mine : QTS North , Western System , Eastern System and QTS South .
In the area of QTS North ore is currently being mined. It is an area with 13 large lenses of pure copper at a depth of 600 to 1,800 m and a length of 15 to 130 m. The Eastern System carries lenses at a depth of 250 m, a length of 50 to 80 m and a width of 10 m. The Western System contains lenses at a depth of 200 meters, 45 meters long and 7 meters wide. The QTS South system is 700 m deep with 200 m long lenses, another area of OTS South discovered in 2005 has lenses 90 m long and 15 m wide.
Mining
Ore is mined in the CSA mine in tunnels 30 m high and 10 m wide. The mined ore and the spoil are transported to the surface. The copper ore and overburden is transported in a 1,050 m deep vertical shaft and stored in above-ground storage facilities where it is crushed, ground and separated.
In the systems, the extracted rock is broken into pieces, smaller than 300 mm, and then ground to particles smaller than 0.1 mm. The metals contained in the sludge are separated in flooded basins with water. The sludge is separated in further tanks through various processing stages and dried on filters.
This concentrate is transported to Port Waratah from Newcastle and shipped to India, China and Southeast Asia.
In August 2011, a contract has been awarded, the shaft, which on a depth currently ends at 1,050 meters, this deepening to 1,500 m and incorporate a transport system with the capacity to 1.6 million tonnes of ore per year with an automated conveyor and Processing facility expanded, which will operate underground.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Ken McQueen: History of the CSA Mine . (PDF; 1.8 MB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 9, 2013 ; Retrieved March 26, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b CSA Copper Mine, Australia. Retrieved March 26, 2012 .
