{"id":733683,"date":"2018-05-31T21:00:28","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T21:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=733683"},"modified":"2018-05-31T21:00:28","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T21:00:28","slug":"early-stage-copper-projects-have-grades-one-third-below-operating-mines-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=733683","title":{"rendered":"Early stage copper projects have grades one-third below operating mines"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Allan McCrae<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

The next generation of copper mines will not only have less copper but sharply declining grades, according to a study by Mining Intelligence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Operating mines currently have an average grade of 0.53% while copper projects under development have an average grade of 0.39%.<\/p>\n

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The estimated total resource of copper projects in the pipeline are 106B tonnes, half the current resource total of existing mines.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

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Jennifer Leinart, Mining Intelligence analyst and vice president of CostMine, warns that copper prices will rise.<\/p>\n

“Miners are struggling with both lower grades and increasing operating costs,” says Jennifer Leinart, Mining Intelligence analyst and vice president of CostMine.<\/p>\n

“Lower grades mean moving more rocks which in turn will require more diesel fuel and explosives, making the metal more expensive to produce.”<\/p>\n

Jennifer estimates that fuel, lubricants and explosives can make up 25% of operating costs, based on today’s prices and using a 40,000 tonne per day open pit copper mine as an example.<\/p>\n

“Existing mines have been labouring under cost inflation,” says Leinart.<\/p>\n

“In 2007 the average operating cost per tonne of copper ore was $14. In 2017 it was $21.”<\/p>\n

Copper demand<\/a> is not expected to slow in the medium-term. The world’s number two miner, Rio Tinto, says cost inflation and resource nationalism<\/a> will continue to put pressure on mining costs.<\/p>\n

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Sign up for Mining Intelligence<\/a> and get rich insights about miners, juniors and projects. Our online tool puts rich data at your fingertips.<\/em><\/p>\n

Creative commons image of copper mushrooms by Tony Hisgett<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The post Early stage copper projects have grades one-third below operating mines<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

…read more<\/a> <\/p>\n

From:: Infomine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Allan McCrae The next generation of copper mines will not only have less copper but sharply declining grades, according to a study by Mining Intelligence. Operating mines currently have an average grade of 0.53% while copper projects under development have an average grade of 0.39%. The estimated total resource of copper projects in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[360],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=733683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=733683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=733683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=733683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}