Arsenic Content a Problem for Copper Miners

The Thomson Reuters GFMS update released this month covered a number of issues related to copper supply and demand, but Frik Els of Mining.com pointed out that the firm also drew attention to the issue of rising arsenic content in copper concentrate.

As quoted in the publication:

According to the authors the proportion of deleterious elements such as arsenic, antimony and bismuth have crept up relative to copper concentrate grades over the past decade as result of a greater proportion of low grade – high tonnage operations.

This has resulted in producers incurring progressively higher penalty charges and receiving lower payables from smelters. Thanks to increasing environmental restrictions most smelters no longer accept concentrates with greater than 0.5% arsenic.

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