Energy and materials flows in the copper industry

Abstract

The copper industry comprises both the primary copper industry, which produces 99.9%-pure copper from copper ore, and the secondary copper industry, which salvages and recycles copper-containing scrap metal to extract pure copper or copper alloys. The United States uses about 2 million tons of copper annually, 60% of it for electrical applications. Demand is expected to increase less than 4% annually for the next 20 years. The primary copper industry is concentrated in the Southwest; Arizona produced 66% of the 1979 total ore output. Primary production uses about 170 x 10/sup 12/ Btu total energy annually (about 100 x 10/sup 6/ Btu/ton pure copper produced from ore). Mining and milling use about 60% of the total consumption, because low-grade ore (0.6% copper) is now being mined. Most copper is extracted by smelting sulfide ores, with concomitant production of sulfur dioxide. Clean air regulations will require smelters to reduce sulfur emissions, necessitating smelting process modifications that could also save 20 x 10/sup 12/ Btu (10 x 10/sup 6/ Btu/ton of copper) in smelting energy. Energy use in secondary copper production averages 20 x 10/sup 6/ Btu/ton of copper. If all copper products were recycled, instead of the 30% now salvaged, the energy conservation potential would be about one-half the total energy consumption of the primary copper industry.