Malachite is the easiest copper mineral to leach in any of modern copper
leaching operations. My estimate—Well over half of today's copper production
comes from acid leaching, solvent extraction and electrowinning. This comes
at the total loss of anything else in the ore such as, gold, silver,
germanium, selenium and a host of others that were collected, (without
intent) through the conventional sorting, concentration, smelting and
electro-refining process.
Mason Coggin
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