Editing Copper extraction (section)

==History==
===Prehistory===
[[File:TamarackMiners CopperCountryMI.jpg|thumb|Miners at the [[Tamarack mine]] in [[Copper Country]], in 1905]]
The [[Old Copper Complex]] in North America has been radiometrically dated to 9500 BP—i.e., about 7480 BCE—making it one of the oldest known examples of copper extraction in the world.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Malakof |first1=David |title=Ancient Native Americans were among the world's first coppersmiths |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-native-americans-were-among-world-s-first-coppersmiths |access-date=6 June 2022 |publisher=Science |date=19 March 2021}}</ref> The earliest evidence of the cold-hammering of native copper comes from the excavation at [[Çayönü|Çayönü Tepesi]] in eastern [[Anatolia]], which dates between 7200 and 6600 BCE.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Beginnings of Village-Farming Communities in Southeastern Turkey|journal=Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |volume=68 |issue=6 |pages=1236–1240|year=1971|pmid=16591930|pmc=389161 |first1=Robert J. |last1=Braidwood |first2=Halet |last2=Çambel |first3=Charles L. |last3=Redman |first4=Patty Jo |last4=Watson |doi=10.1073/pnas.68.6.1236 |bibcode=1971PNAS...68.1236B |doi-access=free}}</ref> Among the various items considered to be votive or amulets, there was one that looked like a fishhook and one like an awl. Another find, at [[Shanidar Cave]] in Mergasur, Iraq, contained copper beads, and dates back to 8,700 BCE.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.tamupress.com/product/Proto-Neolithic-Cemetery-in-Shanidar-Cave,78.aspx|title=The Proto-neolithic Cemetery in Shanidar Cave|year=2004|author1=R.S. Solecki|author2=R.L. Solecki |author3=A.P. Agelarakis |page=53|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|isbn=978-1-58544-272-0}}</ref>

One of the world's oldest known copper mines, as opposed to usage of surface deposits, is at [[Timna Valley]], Israel, and has been used since the fourth millennium BC, with surface deposit usage occurring in the fifth and sixth millennium.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zmvNogJO2ZgC&q=timna+valley+mines&pg=PA583 |title=A Dictionary of Archaeology |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |first=Ian |last=Shaw |pages=582–583|isbn=978-0-631-23583-5 |year=2002 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeinbiblicalis0000king |url-access=registration |quote=timna millennium. |title=Life In Biblical Israel |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |first1=PJ |last1=King |first2=LE |last2=Stager |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifeinbiblicalis0000king/page/165 165]|isbn=978-0-664-22148-5 |year=2001}}</ref>

The [[Pločnik (archaeological site)|Pločnik]] archaeological site in southeastern Europe ([[Serbia]]) contains the oldest securely dated evidence of copper making at high temperature, from 5,000 BCE.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Radivojević |first1=Miljana |last2=Roberts |first2=Benjamin W. |date=2021 |title=Early Balkan Metallurgy: Origins, Evolution and Society, 6200–3700 BC |journal=Journal of World Prehistory |language=en |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=195–278 |doi=10.1007/s10963-021-09155-7 |issn=0892-7537|doi-access=free }}</ref> The find in June 2010 extends for an additional 500 years, dated to 5th millennium BCE, representing the earlier record of copper smelting from [[Rudna Glava (archaeological site)|Rudna Glava]] ([[Serbia]]).<ref>{{cite web |title=Serbian site may have hosted first copper makers |date=July 17, 2010 |work=ScienceNews |url=http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/60563/description/Serbian_site_may_have_hosted_first_copper_makers |access-date=January 3, 2013 |archive-date=May 8, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508005006/http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/60563/description/Serbian_site_may_have_hosted_first_copper_makers }}</ref>

The earliest copper work in the [[Atacama Desert]] and the [[Andean world]] as whole dates to 1432–1132&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Scattolin, M. Cristina |author2=Bugliani, M. Fabiana |author3=Cortés, Leticia |author4=Pereyra Domingorena y C. Marilin Calo, Lucas |year=2010 |title=Una máscara de cobre de 3000&nbsp;años. Estudios arqueometalúrgicos y comparaciones regionales |trans-title=A 3000&nbsp;year-old copper mask. Archeometalurgical analysis and regional comparisons |journal=Boletín del Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino |edition=online |volume=15 |pages=25–46 |doi=10.4067/s0718-68942010000100003 |issn=0718-6894 |doi-access=free |lang=es |place=Santiago de Chile}}</ref><ref>
{{cite journal
 |last1=Powell |first1=Eric A.
 |title=Andean Copper Age
 |journal=Archaeology
 |date=September–October 2017
 |volume=70 |issue=5 |page=20
 |issn=0003-8113
}}
</ref> Ice core studies in Bolivia suggest copper smelting may have begun as early as 700&nbsp;BC, over 2700 years ago.<ref>
{{cite journal
 |journal= Nature
 |author1=Eichler, A.      |author2=Gramlich, G. 
 |author3=Kellerhals, T.   |author4=Tobler, L. 
 |author5=Rehren, Th.      |author6=Schwikowski, M. 
 |date=2017
 |title=Ice-core evidence of earliest extensive copper metallurgy in the Andes 2700 years ago
 |volume=7  |page= 41855
 |doi=10.1038/srep41855 |pmid=28139760
 |pmc=5282569 |bibcode=2017NatSR...741855E
}}
</ref> Various sites of Pre-Hispanic mines and metallurgical workshops have been identified in Atacama Desert including those with remnants of chisels, casting waste and workshop debris.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Early copper metallurgy in Northern Chile |journal=Open Journal of Archaeometry |last=Maldonado |first=Blanca |volume=1 |issue=26 |last2=Rehren |first2=Thilo |last3=Pernicka |first3=Ernst |last4=Núñez |first4=Lautaro |author-link4=Lautaro Núñez Atencio |last5=Leibbrandt |first5=Alexander}}</ref><ref name=metprehi2010>{{Cite journal |title=Metalurgia prehispánica en las sociedades coster as del norte de Chile (quebrada Mamilla, Tocopilla) |journal=[[Estudios Atacameños]] |url=https://revistas.ucn.cl/index.php/estudios-atacamenos/article/view/375/361 |last=Salazar |first=Diego |volume=40 |pages=23–42 |last2=Figueroa |first2=Valentina |year=2010 |language=Spanish |last3=Mille |first3=Benoit |last4=Morata |first4=Diego |last5=Salinas |first5=Hernán}}</ref> Tin broze, [[arsenical bronze]], and [[arsenical copper]] were valuable goods produced in the [[Inca Empire]].<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Copper production in late prehispanic northern Chile |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |last=Zori |first=Colleen |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=1165-1175 |last2=Tropper |first2=Peter |last3=Scott |first3=David |year=2013}}</ref> About 74 km northeast of the Chilean city of [[Copiapó]] in [[Viña del Cerro]] the [[Inca Empire|Incas]] had one of their largest mining and [[metallurgy]] centres at [[Qullasuyu]].<ref name=Cortes2017p4>{{Cite book|title=Chañarcillo, cuando de las montañas brotó la plata|last=Cortés Lutz|first=Guillermo|publisher=[[Museo Regional de Atacama]]|series=Cuadernos de Historia |year=2017|volume=II|language=es|pages=|url=https://www.museodeatacama.gob.cl/sites/www.museodeatacama.gob.cl/files/images/articles-88574_archivo_01.pdf|edition=|page=4}}</ref> There is evidence of gold, silver and copper metallurgy at the site, including the production of [[bronze]].<ref name=Cortes2017p4/> When [[conquistador]] [[Diego de Almagro]] traversed the Atacama Desert in 1536 his men readilly obtained copper [[horseshoe]]s for their horses.{{sfn|Sutulov|1975|p=5}} 

Copper smelting technology gave rise to the [[Copper Age]], aka Chalcolithic Age, and then the [[Bronze Age]]. The Bronze Age would not have been possible without the development of smelting technology.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

===19th century===
The introduction of [[reverberatory furnace]]s to [[Chile]] around 1830 by [[Charles Saint Lambert]]<ref name=CLperJM&SC>{{cite book|title=Mining in Chile's Norte Chico: Journal of Charles Lambert, 1825-1830 (Dellplain Latin American Studies)| author1=John Mayo |author2=Simon Collier | date=3 September 1998 | publisher=Westview Press Inc|isbn=978-0-813-33584-1}}</ref> revolutionized Chilean copper mining.{{sfn|Sagredo|2005|p=277}} In addition to this there was improvements of transport caused by the [[History of rail transport in Chile|development of railroads]] and steam navigation.{{sfn|Camus|2005|p=282}} Prospector [[José Tomás Urmeneta]] discovered rich orebodies at [[Tamaya (mine)|Tamaya]] in 1850, a site that became one of Chile's main copper mines.{{sfn|Sagredo|2005|p=277}} All of this made Chile supply 18% of the copper produced worldwide in the 19th century and the country was from the 1850s to the 1870s the world's top producer.{{sfn|Sutulov|1975|p=3}}{{sfn|Camus|2005|p=233}} In some years Chile's copper production made up about 60% of the worlds output and its [[tariff|export tariff]] made up more than half the state's income.{{sfn|Sagredo|2005|p=280}}

Lambert's success in modernising the Chilean copper industry during the second quarter of the nineteenth century is thought to have sowed the seeds for the later demise of his own copper smelting business (among others) in [[Swansea]].<ref name= "Minchinton2013">{{cite book|editor-first=W.E|editor-last=Minchinton|first=R. O.|last=Roberts |chapter=Non-ferrous smelting| title=Industrial South Wales 1750-1914: Essays in Welsh Economic History|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hXD_AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA141 |date=5 November 2013|publisher=Routledge| isbn=978-1-136-61779-9|page=141}}</ref><ref name=SwanseaselonJW>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Swansea |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Swansea-Wales|author=Jeff Wallenfeldt |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=8 June 2019}}</ref>

By the late 19th century the Chilean mining industry once again lagged behind technological developments (e.g. [[Froth flotation|flotation]], [[Leaching (metallurgy)|leaching]], large-scale [[open-pit mining]]) contributing to the drop of its share of the world production to 5–6% in the 1890s and similar shares remained in the 1900s and 1910s reaching a low of 4.3% in 1914.{{sfn|Sutulov|1975|p=3}}{{sfn|Sagredo|2005|p=290}}{{sfn|Camus|2005|p=236}} Up to the 1940s and 1950s there was also a notable lack of major copper exploration efforts by large mining companies that relied on purchasing prospects already known from the activity of small-scale miners and [[pirquinero]]s.{{sfn|Camus|2005|p=241}}

===Smelting===
[[File:World- Copper Production, 1946 - DPLA - 1e25affd63262ebf6f714b859fa37ae6.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|World copper production, 1946]]
Until the latter half of the 20th century, [[smelting]] sulfide ores was almost the sole means of producing copper metal from mined ores (''primary'' copper production). As of 2002, 80% of global primary copper production was from copper–iron–sulfur minerals, and the vast majority of these were treated by smelting.<ref name="Davenport">W G Davenport, M King, M Schlesinger and A K Biswas, ''Extractive Metallurgy of Copper, Fourth Edition'' (Elsevier Science Limited: Kidlington, Oxford, England, 2002).</ref>

Copper was initially recovered from sulfide ores by directly smelting the ore in a furnace.<ref>Robert Raymond, [[Out of the Fiery Furnace]], The MacMillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 1984.</ref> The smelters were initially located near the mines to minimize the cost of transport. This avoided the prohibitive costs of transporting the waste minerals and the sulfur and iron present in the copper-containing minerals. However, as the concentration of copper in the ore bodies decreased, the energy costs of smelting the whole ore also became prohibitive, and it became necessary to concentrate the ores first.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Initial concentration techniques included hand-sorting<ref name="Gill32">C B Gill, ''Non-ferrous Extractive Metallurgy'' (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1980) p. 32</ref> and gravity concentration. These resulted in high losses of copper. Consequently, the development of the [[froth flotation]] process was a major step forward in mineral processing.<ref>Robert Raymond (1984) [[Out of the Fiery Furnace]], The MacMillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd, Melbourne, pp. 233–235, {{ISBN|0-271-00441-X}}.</ref> The modern froth flotation process was independently invented in the early 1900s in Australia by C.V Potter and around the same time by [[G. D. Delprat]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Historical Note |url=http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/guides/mine/historicalnote.htm |access-date=2007-12-30 |publisher=Minerals Separation Ltd}}</ref> It made the development of the giant [[Bingham Canyon mine]] in Utah possible.<ref>"BP Minerals completes US$400 million modernization at Bingham Canyon," ''Mining Engineering'', November 1988, 1017–1020.</ref>

In the twentieth century, most ores were concentrated before smelting. Smelting was initially undertaken using [[sinter plant]]s and [[Water jacket furnace (metallurgy)|blast furnaces]],<ref>S A Bradford (1989) "The historical development of copper smelting in British Columbia," in: ''All that Glitters: Readings in Historical Metallurgy'', Ed. Michael L. Wayman, The Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Montreal, pp. 162–165, {{ISBN|0-919086-24-1}}.</ref> or with roasters and [[reverberatory furnace]]s.<ref>E Kossatz and P J Mackey (1989) "The first copper smelter in Canada," in: ''All that Glitters: Readings in Historical Metallurgy'', Ed. Michael L. Wayman, The Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Montreal, pp. 160–161, {{ISBN|0-919086-24-1}}.</ref> Roasting and reverberatory furnace smelting dominated primary copper production until the 1960s.<ref name="Davenport"/>

===Late 20th century trends===
In the 1960s and 1970s large copper mining operations by U.S. companies [[Nationalization|were nationalized]] in many of the main copper producing countries.<ref name=valenz>{{Cite book |title=La Gran Minería en Chile |last=Valenzuela Rabí |first=Iván |publisher=Ocho Libros |year=2014 |isbn=978-956-335-192-7 |pages=135–152 |language=Spanish |trans-title=Large Scale Mining in Chile |chapter=El boom minero de los 90 |trans-chapter=The mining boom of the 90s}}</ref> Thus by the 1980s state owned enterprises overtook the dominant role U.S. companies like [[Anaconda Copper]] and [[Kennecott Utah Copper|Kennecott]] had had until then.<ref name=valenz/> In the late 1970s and early 1980s various oil companies like [[ARCO]], Exxon ([[Exxon Minerals]]) and [[Standard Oil Company]] expanded into copper mining for a few years before selling their copper assets.<ref name=valenz/> Reportedly gains were not as high as anticipated.<ref name=valenz/> Investments in copper mining concentrated in Chile in the 1980s and 1990s given that copper mining in other countries faced problems like political instability ([[Peru]]), increased environmental requirements (developed countries) or overall disinterest in foreign investment in a nationalized mining industry ([[Zaire]], [[Zambia]]).<ref name=valenz/>

===21st century===
In the 2013-2023 period the copper smelting capacity in China and Zambia have increased while the capacity in Chile and the United States have decreased.<ref name=jorge>{{Cite web |title=La compleja discusión sobre una nueva fundición en Chile |url=https://www.mch.cl/columnas/la-compleja-discusion-sobre-una-nueva-fundicion-en-chile/ |last=Pedrals |first=Jorge |date=2023-06-17 |access-date=2025-04-22|language=es |website=Minería Chilena}}</ref> China has by far the largest capacity for copper smelting with over half of the world's total. Besides the previously mentioned countries other countries where there is a significant installed cathode production capacity of the world's total as of 2023 are Japan (8%), Russia (5%), Poland (3-4%) and Bulgaria (3-4%).<ref name=jorge/> 

Since the 1990s no new copper smelter have been built in Chile.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Una nueva fundición para Chile. Posible y necesaria |url=https://cesco.cl/una-nueva-fundicion-para-chile-posible-y-necesaria/ |date=2023-07-17 |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=CESCO |language=es}}</ref> Following the 2022 closure of [[Fundición Ventanas]] in central Chile there have been a public discussion on building a new large copper smelter in Chile.<ref name=jorge/> [[Antofagasta Region]] or [[Atacama Region]] has been proposed by Chilean industry scholars as viable replacements.<ref name=ToroMunita>{{Cite news |title=Cierre de fundición Ventanas: El intrincado debate por dónde instalar una nueva planta y los costos asociados |url=https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2022/06/24/1064886/codelco-ventanas-instalar-nueva-fundicion.html |last1=Toro |first1=Daniela |date=2022-06-25 |access-date=2022-06-26 |work=[[El Mercurio|Emol]] |last2=Munita |first2=Ignacia |language=Spanish}}</ref> Others have argued for keeping smelting in Valparaíso Region given the existence of nearby mines.<ref name=ToroMunita/> While some argue the replacement plant should be near the coast, inland [[Chuquicamata]] and [[El Salvador mine|El Salvador]] have also been proposed as alternatives.<ref name=ToroMunita/> The president of the National Mining Society (Sonami), Diego Hernández, estimates the construction period for a new smelter plant to be 5 to 7 years.<ref name=ToroMunita/> A 2024 study identified Antofagasta Region as the best place for a new copper smelter given logistical advantages and an existing and expandable supply of [[copper concentrate]] from nearby mines.<ref name=nuevaf>{{Cite thesis |title=Nueva Fundición de Cobre en Chile |last=Pacheco Zamora |first=Sebastián Patricio |access-date=2025-04-21 |degree=Industrial Engineering |publisher=[[University of Chile]] |url=https://repositorio.uchile.cl/bitstream/handle/2250/204037/Nueva-fundicion-de-cobre-en-Chile.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |language=es}}</ref>

The [[Guixi Smelter]] in inland southeastern China is the world's largest copper smelter by capacity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 April 2024 |title=China's copper smelters to discuss fees as crisis roils sector |url=https://www.mining.com/web/chinas-copper-smelters-to-discuss-fees-as-crisis-roils-sector/ |access-date=20 April 2025 |website=mining.com}}</ref> In 2015 it had an annual production capacity of 900,000 tons of copper.<ref name="sona"/><ref>{{Cite web |date=6 March 2025 |title=Guixi copper smelter |url=https://www.woodmac.com/reports/metals-guixi-copper-smelter-19112982/ |access-date=20 April 2025 |website=woodmac.com}}</ref>