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Oxidised copper minerals dissolve in sulfuric acid. That means the metal can be leached, extracted and plated into finished cathode at the mine site, and leave the country as a 99.99% product rather than as a concentrate. It is the same metal as the Chilean route and a completely different journey.
- 소재
- Copper
- 유형
- Oxide and mixed copper ore of the Central African Copperbelt
- 출발지
- Democratic Republic of the Congo — Kolwezi and the Lualaba copper-cobalt belt
단계별, 국경별
Democratic Republic of the Congo · Kolwezi, Lualaba 보유자 Operators with Gécamines as state partner (채굴업체)
A richer orebody than most
Open-pit and underground mining of sediment-hosted ore that runs several times the grade of a typical porphyry.
왜 이곳인가: The Central African Copperbelt is one of the richest copper provinces on Earth, and it carries cobalt with it.
Democratic Republic of the Congo · Hydrometallurgical plant on site 보유자 Operators (화학)
Leaching with acid
Crushed ore is leached in sulfuric acid. Copper and cobalt dissolve together into a pregnant leach solution.
나머지는 어떻게 되었는가: Acid is trucked in or made on site. In a landlocked country, the reagent supply chain is as hard as the metal one.
왜 이곳인가: No smelter needed, so no reason to ship the ore anywhere.
Democratic Republic of the Congo · Same plant 보유자 Operators (정련업체)
Solvent extraction and electrowinning
An organic solvent picks the copper selectively out of the solution and releases it into a clean electrolyte; current then plates it onto cathode blanks. Cobalt is precipitated separately as a hydroxide.
왜 이곳인가: This is the whole point of the route. The finished metal is made at the mine, in the country that owns the orebody.
South Africa · To Durban, Dar es Salaam or Beira 보유자 Hauliers and traders (트레이더)
Two thousand kilometres by road
Cathode is bundled and trucked across one or two borders to a port. Delays at the border are measured in days.
왜 이곳인가: Being landlocked is the permanent tax on this journey — and it is why the cobalt beside it travels the same road.
China · Wherever it is bought 보유자 Fabricators (제조사)
Straight into the wire market
Cathode from Kolwezi is the same product as cathode from Guixi and trades on the same terms. Nobody downstream can tell which route it took.
왜 이곳인가: Once it is cathode, copper is copper.
이것은 작업 예시이다. 공표된 출발 수량을 공표된 일반적인 수율 및 회수율에 따라 추적한 것이므로 비율은 검증 가능하다. 특정 선적 기록이 아니다. 경로 사실—어느 나라, 어떤 공정, 그리고 왜 해당 소재를 다른 곳에서 처리할 수 없는지—은 공개 보고를 바탕으로 정리되었다.