CHARACTERIZATION OF AZARA COPPER ORE DEPOSIT, NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><div> <div>&nbsp;<b>INTRODUCTION</b></div><div><b>1.1. Preamble</b></div><div>In view of the desire of Nigeria to become one of the twenty leading economies in the world, there is a need to diversify the economic base of the nation. The mineral sector has the capacity to increase the fortune and create more jobs, thereby, enhancing industrial growth. It has been established that Nigeria is endowed with mineral resources; both metallic and non-metallic. However, the nature of these mineral types in a deposit ought to be established in order to facilitate the downstream concentration processes and production of high grade concentrate for extraction and utilization in metallurgical industries. These processes are no doubt relative to the nature of the composition, for example copper's existence as chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), chalcocite (Cu2S), covellite (CuS), malachite (CuCO3.Cu(OH)2), cuprite (Cu2O), etc. is a typical case (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014).</div><div><br></div><div>The extraction of specific valuable minerals from their naturally occurring ores is variously termed as “ore dressing” “mineral dressing” and “minerals beneficiation”. For most metalliferrous ores produced by mining operations, beneficiation is an important intermediate step in the transformation of natural ore to pure metal.Therefore, it is imperative that the key to successful beneficiation of an ore is greatly attached to the amount of information available on the nature and properties of the various components making up the ore. In order to achieve this, adequate chemical and mineralogical studies of an ore must be carried out (Craig and Vaughan, 1981).</div><div><br></div><div>According to data compiled by the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) in 2012, global consumption of refined copper in 2011 rose by 2.7% (500,000 tonnes) to 19.9 million metric......</div> <br></div><p></p>