Mount Isa Mines

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Mount Isa Mines is one of the largest mining complexes in the world called, which is operated in underground mining. In the complex, different ore bodies are mined, copper - lead-zinc ore bodies and silver ore bodies, which are close to Mount Isa in Queensland, Australia. The mines, which degrade copper, the Enterprise mine and the mine X41, and reduce the lead, zinc and silver, Georg Fischer Mine, Black Star and Handlebar Hill mine are mine. The Mount Isa Mines are owned by Xstrata, a global active mining corporation that 2009 3.362 people employed in these mines in the year.

History

1923 orebody was discovered that contains lead, zinc and silver. In 1924, the company Mount Isa Mines Limited (MIM ) was founded. Copper ore body, which is separated from the other ore bodies, was discovered in 1927. While continued to run the war effort copper production during World War II, the lead and zinc promotion in 1943 was set in 1946 and resumed. In the 1960s, the mines provided the supported metals for further processing in smelters and processing plants to Europe.

In the 1980s, however, the mining company diversified into coal mining. Then, Xstrata announced in mid-2003 from a purchase offer for the metal mines Mount Isa mine and was awarded the contract.

Orebody

The ore bodies in the 320 km ² large mining area lying from Mount Isa are located in the Lower - Proterozoic - Urquhart Shale, which was formed about 1.6 billion years ago. The Urquhart - rail Ferch layer is 1000 meters thick and consists of gray dolomitic shale with tuff horizons. The ore body is located spatially close and parallel to the shale layers.

The ore bodies lie below 650 meters depth and reach the warp from Mount Isa in the west and volcanic rocks to the east. The copper orebodies contain galena and sphalerite with pyrite and pyrrhotite and the lead - zinc-silver ore body is concordant with dolomitic sediments from the Carboniferous. About 20 ore bodies are degradable, each about 1.4 km long, extend to a depth of 800 meters and are 4 to 48 feet wide.

Production figures

2009 were obtained in the copper deposits 6 million tons of ore, of which 162.00 tons of copper concentrate and 214,000 tons of copper were produced in the smelter. The concentrator is to produce 7.2 million tonnes of ore and the copper smelter 300,000 tonnes of copper in the situation.

7.4 million tonnes of ore in 2008 promoted to the lead-zinc -silver deposits, of which 324,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate, 146,000 tons of lead ingots and 232 tons of silver. The concentrator can handle 8 million tons of ore annually and there is a zinc filter plant and a lead smelter.

Environmental problems

The smelters, which are close to the town of Mount Isa, emit sulfur dioxide, lead and other metal dusts. It was found that soils around Mount Isa are burdened with these substances from the past and present mining operation. The competent authority for Queensland Health reported in 2008 that the concentration of lead in the blood of children aged 1-4 years was in Mount Isa with 5 micrograms / deciliter substantially higher than the national average of 2 micrograms. 11.3 per cent of the children examined had a value of about 10 micrograms. Values ​​above 5 micrograms are considered a health risk.

In 2009, Xstrata announced that it had invested in environmental protection measures of the mines AUD 16 million.