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Deposits ore colored metals
The main non-ferrous metals are copper, zinc, aluminum, titanium, magnesium, tin, lead, and nickel. The extraction of non-ferrous metals is due to the widespread use of these elements in various branches of human activity.
Today’s life is impossible to imagine without aluminum, which is widely used in aircraft construction, copper – the main element for the production of electrical cables, zinc, which is used as a corrosion-resistant layer in steel production, lead, plates from which are used to protect against penetrating radiation, and chemical compounds are used to produce powerful explosives (lead nitrate) and detonators (azide of lead). This is only a small part of the industries whose existence requires the extraction of non-ferrous metals and their processing. That is why the non-ferrous metal industry is so widely developed in the world today.
Consider the deposits of the most common non-ferrous metals in the industry:
1) Copper. Copper ores, are characterized by a very low content of copper in the ore (from 0.3 to 3%), usually occur together with zinc, lead, less often-gold, silver. The main copper deposits in Russia include:
Degtyarskoye, Krasnouralskoye, Kirovogradskoye, and Revdinskoye are located in the Sverdlovsk region (Urals); Udokan deposit is located in the Trans-Baikal Territory, Udokan Ridge; Urupskoye and Khudesskre deposits are located in the North Caucasus (Stavropol Territory). Of these, the Udokan deposit has the highest copper content (14 million tons).
The largest copper deposit in the world is Chuquicamata (26 million tons) and Escondida (23.6 million tons), located in Chile. Interestingly, the Chuquicamata deposit began to be processed more than 100 years ago. Other major deposits are: Graserg (27.1 million tons) in Indonesia, Collahuasi (17 million tons) in Chile, Antamina in Peru, Salobu and Sosegu in Brazil, Nurkazgan in Kazakhstan, etc.
2) Zinc. Unlike copper, which was the main of the first metals mastered by man (Copper Age), in nature, as a native metal is not found. Zinc is extracted from polymetallic ores containing 1-4% Zn in the form of sulfide. That is, the classification of zinc deposits as such, in fact, is meaningless – since zinc is extracted from ore as a secondary product, and therefore can be attributed to all the above deposits.
3) Lead. Lead is also not subject to classification by individual deposits. As it is extracted, as well as zinc as a secondary product from polymetallic ores. Special attention should be paid to lead-zinc ores, which are characterized by a higher content of lead and zinc, however, these ores also contain copper, silver, gold, bismuth, etc.
4) Aluminum. Al is a highly active chemical element, so its presence in nature in its pure form is excluded. Bauxite is the main industrial raw material for the aluminum industry, its reserves are very unevenly distributed and limited.
There are seven bauxite-rich areas in the world:
- West and Central Africa (main deposits in Guinea);
- South America: Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela;
- Caribbean region: Jamaica;
- Oceania and South Asia: Australia, India;
- China;
- Mediterranean: Greece and Turkey;
- Ural (Russia);
According to the US Geological Survey, the world’s bauxite resources are estimated at 55-76 billion tons, which are distributed among individual regions as follows: Africa-32%, South America and the Caribbean — 21%, Asia-18%, and other regions-6%.
5) Nickel. Usually, deposits of sulfide and silicate nickel ores containing 1-2% Ni are developed. According to their specifications, nickel deposits are divided into:
— copper-nickel sulfide deposits: Norilsk (including Talnakh and Oktyabrskoye), Monchegorsk, Kaula, etc.
— nickel silicate and cobalt-nickel silicate, mainly reservoir-like deposits in the Southern Urals and Pobuzhya (Ukraine), as well as deposits in Cuba, Indonesia, New Caledonia and Australia.
