Show bubble bath for copper vital step in producing copper concentrate from low grade ore at utah copper is the flotation process here copper particles float to the surface and are recovered in chemical froth utah engineering miracle gives U S third of vital copper supply if a farmer worked full time on 1000 acres and then succeeded in living off the yield of just ten acres he would be considered a miracle man yet in effect this is exactly what is accomplished at the bingham mine of the utah copper division copper corp an engineering miracle makes possible successful operation of a mine mine with ore that has a copper content as low as 04 aa this low grade 11 ade ore combined with slightly ua higher her grade ore gives the mine an average ore slightly less than 1 1170 of copper to appreciate the problem involved in mining such low grade ore it is necessary to go back to the beginning of the century when daniel C jackling advanced the theory that aclo 2 copper could be mined successfully at the time his idea was considered completely impractical yet today this 2 figure has been cut 80 even though production costs wages and taxes have risen materially the ability to operate successfully with ore that 60 50 years ago would have been considered waste material is a tribute to engineering genius that developed new processes equipment and greater efficiency every phase of copper production from mining through ore haulage milling and refining was subjected to constant research for improved methods A key development in the search fo tor r improved methods was the flotation process used in mill the discovery that metal bearing particles of sulphide ore will clin cling g to a chemical froth arca greatly t ay iy s irl increased eased the amount of copl copper er recovered and made possible the use of lower grade ore the lowering of the so called cutoff cut off point between ore and waste to the present 04 lo 10 ha has is had a profound effect on the pros prosperity of utah and the well being of her people eople had the life of the bingham earn mine been limited by daniel Jac klings original estimate of tons of ore averaging 2010 2 copper utah copper would not now be producing 30 of the nations new copper productivity of the bingham mine mine has brought the benefits of payrolls supply purchases and tax payments to help every segment of utah the engineering miracle that keeps ut utah copper operating resulted during the first six months of 1951 in the production of pounds of copper a payroll of supply purchases of other expenditures tures of and tabea of |