Question

A Cu deposit of 198 tons with average grade of 1.5% Cu contains 60% chalcopyrite, 30% bornite and 10% gangue. The maximum amount of Cu that can be extracted from chalcopyrite is .......... tons. (Round off to two decimal places)

Hint:

To calculate the amount of metal that can be extracted, multiply the total amount of ore by the percentage of the ore that contains the metal and the metal content in that ore.

Answer 1

Step 1: Understand the given data.
- The total weight of the Cu deposit is 198 tons.
- The average grade of Cu is 1.5%.
- The Cu deposit contains 60% chalcopyrite, 30% bornite, and 10% gangue.
- The Cu content in chalcopyrite is 34.5%, as chalcopyrite contains about 34.5% Cu.
Step 2: Calculate the total amount of Cu in the deposit.
The total amount of Cu in the deposit is: \[ \text{Total Cu} = 198 \, \text{tons} \times 1.5% = 198 \times 0.015 = 2.97 \, \text{tons of Cu} \] Step 3: Calculate the amount of Cu in chalcopyrite.
The amount of chalcopyrite in the deposit is: \[ \text{Amount of chalcopyrite} = 198 \, \text{tons} \times 60% = 198 \times 0.60 = 118.8 \, \text{tons of chalcopyrite} \] The amount of Cu that can be extracted from chalcopyrite is: \[ \text{Cu from chalcopyrite} = 118.8 \times 34.5% = 118.8 \times 0.345 = 40.98 \, \text{tons of Cu} \] Step 4: Round off to two decimal places.
The maximum amount of Cu that can be extracted from chalcopyrite is: \[ \boxed{40.98} \, \text{tons of Cu} \]