|
Copper Concentrate
Vale Inco produces copper concentrate at our Canadian operations in Sudbury,
Ontario and the Voisey’s Bay Nickel Operation in Labrador. The copper
concentrate is recovered from sulphide ores mined in the Sudbury area and the
Voisey’s Bay mine site and is the product that results following the crushing,
milling and flotation of mine ore. Vale Inco copper concentrate generally contains 28
to 34 percent copper content. All of the copper concentrate is sold, primarily to
smelters in Canada and Europe.
Copper Anodes
Vale Inco produces copper anodes at our Canadian operation in Sudbury, Ontario.
Downstream of the Bulk Smelting process employed in Sudbury, to smelt the nickel
concentrate, nickel and copper sulphides are separated to discrete products. The
copper-bearing sulphide is smelted at the Copper Smelter to produce copper anodes,
which generally contain 99 percent copper content. The copper anodes are primarily
sold in Canada for further refining to electrolytic copper cathode.
Electrowon Copper Cathode
Vale Inco produces copper cathode at our Canadian operation in Sudbury, Ontario.
The copper contained in electrowon cathode is recovered from the nickel refinery
residue in Sudbury through a leaching and electrowinning operation. Electrowon copper
cathodes generally contain 99.99 percent copper content and are primarily sold in
North America.
Inco Electrowon Copper Cathode produced by Vale Inco Canadian version) (PDF, 124KB)
© Vale Inco 2007
Last Updated: December 7, 2007
|