Mount Isa Mines
| Mount Isa Mines | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
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| Mining technology | Opencast mining , underground mining | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | Xstrata | ||
| Start of operation | 1924 | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Copper / silver / zinc / lead | ||
| Degradation of | silver | ||
| Degradation of | zinc | ||
| Degradation of | lead | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 20 ° 42 '58 " S , 139 ° 28' 34" E | ||
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| Location | Mount Isa | ||
| State | Queensland | ||
| Country | Australia | ||
Mount Isa Mines is called one of the largest underground mining complexes in the world . Different ore bodies are mined in the complex , copper ore bodies and lead - zinc - silver ore bodies, which are located near Mount Isa in Queensland , Australia . The mines that extract copper are the Enterprise Mine and the X41 Mine , and the mines that extract lead, zinc and silver are the Georg Fischer Mine , Black Star Mine and Handlebar Hill Mine . The Mount Isa Mines are owned by Xstrata , a global mining company that employed 3,362 people in these mines in 2009.
history
In 1923 an ore body was discovered containing lead, zinc and silver. Mount Isa Mines Limited (MIM) was founded in 1924 . The copper ore body, which is separate from the other ore bodies, was discovered in 1927. While copper production, which was important for the war effort, continued during the Second World War , lead and zinc production was stopped in 1943 and only resumed in 1946. In the 1960s, the mines delivered the extracted metals to Europe for further processing in smelters and processing plants.
In the 1980s, however, the mining company diversified into coal mining . As a result, Xstrata made an offer to buy the Mount Isa Mine in mid-2003 and was awarded the contract.
Ore body
The ore bodies located in the 320 km² mining area of Mount Isa are located in the Lower Proterozoic - Urquhart Shale , which was formed about 1.6 billion years ago. The Urquhart slate layer is 1000 meters thick and consists of gray dolomitic slate with tuff horizons. The ore bodies are spatially narrow and parallel to the slate layers.
The ore bodies lie below 650 meters and reach the Mount Isa fault in the west and volcanic rocks in the east. The copper ore bodies contain galena and sphalerite with pyrite and pyrrhotite and the lead-zinc-silver ore body is concordant with dolomitic sediments from the Carboniferous . Over 20 ore bodies can be mined, each around 1.4 km long, reaching a depth of 800 meters and being 4 to 48 meters wide.
Production numbers
In 2009, 6 million tons of ore were extracted in the copper deposits, of which 162,000 tons of copper concentrate and 214,000 tons of copper were produced in the smelter. The concentrator is capable of producing 7.2 million tons of ore and the copper smelter 300,000 tons of copper.
7.4 million tons of ore were mined in the lead-zinc-silver deposits in 2008, including 324,000 tons of zinc concentrate, 146,000 tons of lead ingots and 232 tons of silver. The concentrator can process 8 million tons of ore annually and there is a zinc filter plant and a lead smelter.
environmental issues
The smelters near the town of Mount Isa emit sulfur dioxide , lead and other metal dusts. It has been found that soils around Mount Isa are contaminated with these substances from past and present mining operations. The Queensland Health Authority reported in 2008 that the concentration of lead in the blood of children aged 1 to 4 years in Mount Isa was 5 micrograms / deciliter, well above the national average of 2 micrograms. 11.3 percent of the children examined had a value greater than 10 micrograms. Values above 5 micrograms are considered harmful to health.
In 2009, Xstrata announced that it had invested AUD 16 million in environmental protection measures for the mines.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b mining-technology.com : "Mount Isa Lead, Zinc and Silver Mine, Australia", in English, accessed on March 21, 2012
- ↑ xstrata.com ( Memento of the original from June 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.9 MB): Xstrata Mount Isa Mines. Sustainability Report 2009 p. 3, in English, accessed on March 21, 2012
- ↑ derm.gls.gov.au ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : MIM Metals Report , accessed March 21, 2012
- ↑ health.qld.gov.au ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) 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. (PDF; 50 kB): LEAD REPORT TO BE FULLY ACTIONED: QUEENSLAND HEALTH , an English language, accessed on March 22, 2012
- ↑ health.qld.gov.au : Queensland Health Mt Isa lead report , in English, accessed 21 March 2012
- ↑ npi.gov.au : National Pollutant Inventory , in English, accessed on March 21, 2012
- ↑ xstrata.com ( Memento of the original from June 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) 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. (PDF; 2.9 MB): Xstrata Mount Isa Mines. Sustainability Report 2009 . P. 34, in English, accessed on March 21, 2012
