What this place is
Morenci has been mined for over 150 years. Most of its copper never sees a smelter: acid trickles through heaps of crushed ore and the metal is plated straight out of solution.
Grade. Low grade, made economic by leaching rather than smelting most of the ore.
“Grade” is the percentage of the useful stuff in the rock. A copper mine at 0.5% grade throws away 199 tonnes of rock for every tonne of copper it sells. That single number decides whether an orebody is a mine or just an interesting piece of geology.
What comes out
Copper
The reddish metal that carries electricity better than anything except silver, and which humans have been smelting…
Molybdenum
A silvery metal added to steel so it keeps its strength at high temperature and under pressure.
A “by-product” is a metal recovered because it happens to be in the same rock, not because anyone went looking for it. Its supply therefore follows the primary metal’s economics, not its own.
Who owns it
| Company | Role | Interest |
|---|---|---|
| Freeport-McMoRan | Miner | Majority owner-operator |
As publicly reported by the operators. Ownership of large mines changes; verify against current company filings before relying on it.