Copper: Humanity’s first and most important future metal
Millions of feet of copper wiring will be required for strengthening the world’s power grids, and hundreds of thousands of tonnes more are needed to build wind and solar farms.
A reserve of 1.28 million was discovered by geological workers in China’s far west, the autonomous region of Xinjiang that borders Russia and Kazakhstan. The finding was reported in Xinhua.
The exploration team, which was made of mining companies and geological departments, also discovered 220,000 tonnes of copper and 60,000 tonnes of cobalt.
The exploration area was identified earlier this year, a 5,585-square-kilometer section within Ruoqiang that is on the southeastern edge of the Taklimakan Desert.
Officials expect the reserve to grow once more exploration is conducted.
Xinhua is rich in natural resources. It has China’s largest oil and gas reserves and produces most of the country’s natural gas. It also records China’s greatest seasonal difference, with the hottest summers and coldest winters.
Image of Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region by Pravit
3 Comments
Bob Roe
How excited should we all be with the news of this discovery? A “reserve of 1.28 million tonnes”…. of what? Ni ORE? Ni METAL? Cumulative weight of the geological reports, maps and field notebooks plus the members of the field teams?
The copper and cobalt (separate discoveries in an area approx the size of Luxembourg) may be significant, subject to the usual nuisance of relevant details: size, grade, overburden, metallurgy, etc. A 220,000t Cu deposit is equivalent to 20Mt @ 1.1% Cu, a modest-sized deposit of decent grade. Expecting the “reserve to grow once more exploration is conducted” is something many of us have done many times, not always (or usually) with the results we’d hoped. .
Rafael
Bob,
I think that 1.28 million of Pounds.
Regards
Rafael
AJ
Great information!