Copper CathodesAt the risk of repeating myself I can't emphasize enough the tremendous difference between
copper ore and cathode production. I worked in Trail in my early days where zinc and lead
were produced in electolytic tanks from a suphide solution. The zinc and lead gets electroplated
out onto an aluminum sheet which is then pulled out of the solution every 24 hours and stripped
off as whole billets of lead or zinc. The refinery process is very efficient once the ore is roasted
and dissolved into an acidic solution. This is exactly the same process used in smelting copper.
The point I am making is with in situ production, the copper solution is simpley pumped out
of the ground and then electoplated into copper cathodes right on site thereby completely
eliminating the mining, crushing, shipping and refinery charges that all copper mines go
through before they get paid. E.G., Copper Mountain has to ship its ore to Japan to a smelter
there because we don't have and have never built a copper smelter in BC go figure. The only
mines in the world that could compete with TKO Florence are 3rd world ones where labour is
dirt cheap. TKO Florence is groundbreaking stuff and I'm positive there will be many eyes
besides ours watching its progress. Lundin, BHP, Teck etc.
GLTA MS