1. Copper ore commodity knowledge commodity overview metal copper, element symbol Cu, atomic weight 63.54, specific gravity 8.92, melting point 1083 °C. Pure copper is light rose or light red, surface formation, copper oxide film, the appearance of purple red, often called Red Copper. Copper is a typical sulfur-friendly element, which mainly forms sulfides in nature. Only under strong oxidation condition, it can form natural copper under reduction condition. At present, more than 250 kinds of copper minerals and copper-bearing minerals have been found in the Earth's crust, mainly sulfides and their similar compounds and copper oxides, native copper, and minerals such as sulfate, carbonate and silicate of copper.

In terms of regional distribution, there are five regions with the highest copper deposits in the world: the Western foothills of the Andes in Peru and Chile in South America; the Logi and Daping Valleys in the western United States; Congo and Zambia in Africa; and the Kazakhstan; Eastern and central Canada. From the distribution of countries, the world's copper resources are mainly concentrated in Chile, the United States, Zambia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Peru. Chile is the country with the most abundant copper resources in the world, and its copper reserves account for about 1/4 of the total world reserves.

Although China is known as a country with large copper resources, the natural endowment of copper resources in China is not good, and there are many defects, such as small scale of ore deposits, more lean ore deposits, less rich ore deposits, more associated ore deposits, less single copper deposits, etc. . Generally speaking, China's copper resources are poor in quantity and grade, low in international competitiveness, and copper resources, especially rich copper resources, are insufficient. At present, China's imports of copper concentrate accounted for about 75% of overall demand.

2. Copper smelting technology of copper mine has experienced a long development process, but up to now copper smelting is still dominated by fire smelting, its output is about 85% of the total output of copper in the world. 01. Fire smelting

Fire-smelting is through melting and electrolytic refining fire production, out of cathode copper, that is, electrolytic copper, generally suitable for high-grade copper sulfide ore. The recovery rate of copper is up to 95% , but the sulfur in ore is discharged as sulfur dioxide gas in two stages of matte-making and converting, so it is difficult to recover and easy to cause pollution.

02.Electrolysis plant

03. Hydrometallurgy

Generally suitable for low-grade copper oxide, the production of refined copper known as electrodeposited copper. 

3. Copper Mine International Trade Pricing Mechanism copper mine is one of the bulk materials in international trade. China is a copper-deficient country and needs to import a large amount of copper ore every year to meet domestic demand. The main factor affecting the price of copper concentrate is the change of supply and demand. From the point of view of commodities, mainly copper content, precious metal content and harmful elements, impurities content. From the perspective of pricing mechanism, it is closely related to the level of processing fee and the choice of pricing period. At present, China's imported copper concentrates are mainly priced by formula, and some enterprises have signed fixed price contracts with the sellers, but fixed price contracts are not the mainstream pricing method. In International Trade, the prices of copper, gold and silver in copper concentrates are based on the prices of copper, gold and silver published in METAL BULLETIN published by the London Metal Exchange (LME) .

FORMULA PRICING PRICING FOR IMPORTED COPPER CONCENTRATES THE PRICING FORMULA IS USUALLY: basic price per dry ton of copper concentrate = (copper content-depletion) * price-making period London copper price one processing fee + (gold content * Recovery Rate) * London gold price one processing fee + (silver content * Recovery Rate) * London silver price one processing fee over standard harmful elements penalty. In addition, there are some small and medium-sized enterprises or trade-oriented enterprises to import copper concentrate price factor way pricing, that is, import copper concentrate price = copper content * Pricing Period LME Copper Price * pricing factor. However, when there is little difference in the quality of the contract date, the prices derived from the two pricing methods should be close to each other. (1) loss of copper concentrate in the process of refining copper concentrate, copper can not be 100% recovery, so to deduct a certain loss. In international practice, the copper content is greater than or equal to 30% , the loss is 1.25% ; the copper content is less than 30% , the loss is 1.15% . For example, for a copper concentrate with a copper content of 30% , the actual recovery is 30%-1.25%-28,75% (recovery is about 96%) . (2) processing fee the processing fee for copper concentrates is the fee paid by the mineral trader and the trader to the refinery for the processing of the copper concentrates into refined copper, including the Treatment charges (TC) and the Refining charges (RC) . TC is quoted in US dollars per ton of copper concentrate while RC is quoted in US cents per pound of refined copper. For example, TC COSTS $50 per ton of copper concentrate and RC costs 5 cents per pound of refined copper. It needs to be pointed out that the processing cost of copper concentrates is out of line with the actual processing cost incurred in treating copper concentrates into refined copper, and there are situations where the processing cost is higher than the actual processing cost, there are also cases where processing costs are much lower than the actual cost of refining. The level of TC/RC indicates the level of profit of pure treatment refiner. TC/RC high indicates that the profit of smelter is high, which will stimulate the enthusiasm of smelter and vice versa. But the important factor that decides the level of TC/RC is the supply-demand relationship of copper ore. In general, when copper ore is in short supply, the mine takes the lead in negotiations with the refiner, and its payment TC/RC decreases; whereas, when copper ore is in full supply, TC/RC rises. In other words, there is a positive relationship between TC/RC and the supply of copper concentrates. Because of this, the change of TC/RC can be generally called as a barometer of supply and demand of copper concentrate. (3) price-fixing period price-fixing period, also known as point price period, selection period, etc. . In the actual transaction, both the buyer and the seller generally have to determine the pricing period, that is, within a certain period of time according to the price of Lme (London Metal Exchange) metal copper to determine the prices of both the buyer and the seller. The price of LME copper, which is used as a benchmark for pricing, can be the spot price, the three-month futures price, or other LME published prices agreed between the buyer and the seller. The pricing period is usually the shipping month (bill of lading month) or the nth month after the arrival month, such as m + 1, M + 2, m + 3, etc. . The buyer and seller may agree to use the average LME copper price of the month in which the price is set as the base price, or they may choose to use the point price method. For example, in the case of M + 2, where the month of shipment is m and the month of shipment is May and the month of shipment is July, the pricing basis for the imported copper concentrate is LME copper in July if both the buyer and the seller agree to price it on an equal basis, if the buyer agrees to fix the price by point, the buyer must complete the point by June 30, according to the third Wednesday in July (the third Wednesday of each month as the delivery day of LME copper concentrate pricing habit) LME copper prices, premium adjustment. The overdue price may be extended by the buyer or based on the average LME copper price in July, depending on the contract. (4) the pricing of gold and silver in copper concentrates in international trade begins with the pricing of gold above 1 gram dry ton. The recovery rate of gold is as follows:

In International Trade, silver begins to be valued above 30 grams per dry ton and is provided for as follows:

5) excessive and harmful elements deduction penalty different users have different requirements, generally larger factories have stricter requirements and smaller factories have looser requirements. In International Trade, AS (Arsenic) & GT; 0.3% and HG (mercury) & GT; 300 PPM are usually fined for exceeding the limit. Specific penalty standard basis, according to the specific agreement of the contract.

 Source: Tradeshow

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