Tracking cobalt, REE and gold from a porphyry-type deposit by LA-ICP-MS: a geological approach towards metal-selective mining in tailings
Author
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Velásquez, Germán
Author
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Carrizo, Daniel
Author
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Salvi, Stefano
Author
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Vela, Iván
Author
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Pablo, Marcial
Author
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Pérez, Agustín
Admission date
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2020-04-25T23:37:07Z
Available date
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2020-04-25T23:37:07Z
Publication date
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2020
Cita de ítem
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Minerals 2020, 10, 109
es_ES
Identifier
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10.3390/min10020109
Identifier
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https://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/174137
Abstract
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High-resolution mineral characterization performed on mine material from a giant porphyry copper deposit shows that critical and precious metals, such as cobalt, lanthanum, gold, silver, and tellurium, are concentrated in pyrite in the form of visible micro-inclusions, invisible mineral nano-inclusions, and trace metals in the mineral lattice. Visible and invisible inclusions consist of Ag-Au-Te sulfosalt and monazite-(La) particles. Trace metal concentrations grade up to 24,000 g/t for cobalt, up to 4000 g/t for lanthanum, and up to 4 g/t for gold. Pyrite, considered a waste material, is removed from the valuable copper ore material and sent to the tailings. Thus, tailings with high contents of pyrite can represent a prime target to explore for critical metals in the porphyry copper mining operations, transforming it into a new source of supply for critical metals. We propose that high-resolution mineral characterization is the key to evolve from a quasi-single-metal (copper) operation to a multi-metals business by developing metal-selective mining. To address this challenge, we coined the Metal-Zone concept to identify zones enriched in a specific metal within a mineral deposit, instead of zones enriched in an ore mineral.