The economic potential of metalliferous sub-volcanic brines
The transition to a low-carbon economy will increase demand for a wide range of metals, notably copper, which is used extensively in power generation and in electric vehicles. Increased demand will require new, sustainable approaches to copper exploration and extraction. Conventional copper mining e...
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Published in | Royal Society open science Vol. 8; no. 6; p. 202192 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
The Royal Society
01.06.2021
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The transition to a low-carbon economy will increase demand for a wide range of metals, notably copper, which is used extensively in power generation and in electric vehicles. Increased demand will require new, sustainable approaches to copper exploration and extraction. Conventional copper mining entails energy-intensive extraction of relatively low-grade ore from large open pits or underground mines and subsequent ore refining. Most copper derives ultimately from hot, hydrous magmatic fluids. Ore formation involves phase separation of these fluids to form copper-rich hypersaline liquids (or 'brines') and subsequent precipitation of copper sulfides. Geophysical surveys of many volcanoes reveal electrically conductive bodies at around 2 km depth, consistent with lenses of brine hosted in porous rock. Building upon emerging concepts in crustal magmatism, we explore the potential of sub-volcanic brines as an
source of copper and other metals. Using hydrodynamic simulations, we show that 10 000 years of magma degassing can generate a Cu-rich brine lens containing up to 1.4 Mt Cu in a rock volume of a few km
at approximately 2 km depth. Direct extraction of metal-rich brines represents a novel development in metal resource extraction that obviates the need for conventional mines, and generates geothermal power as a by-product. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5480583. |
ISSN: | 2054-5703 2054-5703 |
DOI: | 10.1098/rsos.202192 |