Barry Golding Suzanne D. Golding Metals, Energy and Sustainability The Story of Doctor Copper and King Coal Metals, Energy and Sustainability Barry Golding • Suzanne D. Golding Metals, Energy and Sustainability The Story of Doctor Copper and King Coal 123 Barry Golding Suzanne D. Golding Sherwood, QLD School of Earth and Environmental Sciences Australia University of Queensland Brisbane Australia ISBN 978-3-319-51173-3 ISBN 978-3-319-51175-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-51175-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016962033 © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 This work is subject to copyright. 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Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustrations: NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Galapagos Rift Expedition 2011; Interior of one of the copper mines on the Paris Mountain: 1792 by John Warwick Smith. By kind permission of the National Library of Wales; Moche smiths smelting, at the National Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Lima, Peru, photograph by kind permission of Nathan Benn. See also Figures 2.6, 3.19 and 3.52 from this book. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Acknowledgements Metals, Energy and Sustainability—The Story of Doctor Copper and King Coal evolved as we visited copper and coal mining sites throughout the world. Our initial training was gained at Mount Morgan where the then General Manager Loy Hennessy encouraged a scientific approach to the mining and extraction of copper. We are deeply indebted to the people who enabled our visits to Timna in Israel, Parys Mountain and the staithes of Newcastle on Tyne in Great Britain, the Rio Tinto mine and museum in Spain, Bingham Canyon and North Antelope Rochelle Mine mines in the United States and finally Chuquicamata in Chile. We are also grateful to the many organisations acknowledged throughout the book that kindly agreed to our using their material. Information has been sourced widely; however, special thanks are due to Daniel Edelstein from the U.S. Geological Survey and Prof. Rod Eggert from the Colorado School of Mines. In Great Britain, Prof. Paul Younger kindly provided ideas and relevant places to visit. Professor Harry Campbell not only read and edited the final chapter but was also the driving force behind the paper and Ph.D. on which Chap. 4 is based. John Reid and Brian Warner who worked with us at Mount Morgan gave valuable technical input into the metallurgy sections of the book. Nevertheless, any mistakes are our own and we would be grateful to receive advice on any errors spotted or necessary corrections. Thank you Petra van Steenbergen from Springer who supported our proposed book and the continuing support of Springer when deadlines came and went. Finally, the book was only possible with the encouragement and support from our son Laurence who kept our computers operational over the years it has taken to research and write this book. v Contents 1 Doctor Copper and King Coal ............................... 1 1.1 Why Doctor Copper and King Coal ........................ 1 1.2 Copper: A Most Useful Metal ............................ 3 1.3 Properties that Make Copper Desirable...................... 8 1.4 Coal: The Energy for the Industrial Revolution ............... 13 1.5 Our Current Use of Coal ................................ 14 1.6 The Essential Properties of Coal........................... 15 References................................................ 19 2 Copper and Coal Resources ................................. 21 2.1 Copper Mineralogy and Formation ......................... 22 2.2 Coal Composition and Formation .......................... 30 References................................................ 35 3 Copper and Coal Through the Ages .......................... 37 3.1 Earliest Metalsmiths .................................... 38 3.2 Out of the Dark Ages ................................... 66 3.3 The First Modern Mines................................. 92 3.4 The Age of Electricity .................................. 110 3.5 The Mega Mines ...................................... 136 References................................................ 146 4 The Future for Copper and Coal ............................. 157 4.1 Consumption of Copper and Coal Since 1940 ................ 157 4.2 Defining Sustainability .................................. 158 4.3 Sustainability Predictions Based on Reserves ................. 161 4.4 Evaluating the Sustainability of Copper and Coal.............. 170 4.5 Sustainability of Coal Production .......................... 173 4.6 Sustainability of Copper Production ........................ 176 4.7 Conclusions .......................................... 182 References................................................ 183 Glossary.................................................... 187 Index ...................................................... 191 vii About the Authors Barry Golding commenced his mining career in the Dawson Valley Colliery in 1965. The mine supplied coal for the Mount Morgan Limited copper reverberatory furnace. He accepted a cadetship with Mount Morgan Limited in 1966 and gained his degree in mining engineering in 1968. Barry worked in metalliferous and coal mining in Australia and gold and chrome mining in South Africa and has worked continuously in the mining industry from 1968 onward apart from two years in the army that included a year in Vietnam. Barry completed a Postgraduate Diploma of Applied Economics followed by a Master of Economics by Research in 2002. The focus for both degrees was applying cost–benefit and cost-effectiveness techniques to resource management incorporating risk analysis and sustainable development. In 2011 he was awarded his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Queensland for his thesis entitled Metals Energy and Sustainability. Suzanne D. Golding commenced her geology career at the Mount Morgan gold– copper mine in 1967. She graduated from the University of Queensland in 1970 with a first class honours degree in geology. Suzanne worked in mineral exploration and production in Australia and gold and coal mining in South Africa through the 1970s. In 1982 she was awarded a Ph.D. in Geochemistry from the University of Queensland for work on gold mineralisation in the Kalgoorlie-Norseman region, Western Australia. Suzanne has worked continuously at the University of Queensland since 1982 and is currently Professor in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences. She has published more than 160 journal articles and book chapters and edited a pioneering text on coal seam gas entitled Coalbed Methane: Scientific, Environmental and Economic Evaluation. ix List of Figures Figure 1.1 Old King Coal’s crown in danger—Library of Congress . 5 Figure 1.2 The Iceman’s copper axe: Photo credit: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology—www.iceman.it ............. 6 Figure 1.3 Known world copper production—After (Schmitz 1979) . 7 Figure 1.4 Various copper alloy colours—courtesy of the International Copper Association, Australia . 12 Figure 1.5 Consumption of copper by the major consuming countries. 12 Figure 1.6 World coal consumption by sector. 14 Figure 2.1 Hydrothermal fluids venting from chimneys on the seafloor (Pacific Ring of Fire 2004 Expedition— NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration; Dr. Bob Embley, NOAA PMEL, Chief Scientist) . 23 Figure 2.2 Typical copper orebody with secondary minerals resulting from weathering processes . 24 Figure 2.3 The Ring of Fire (courtesy U.S. geological survey) . 25 Figure 2.4 Atacamite from the oxide zone at Chuquicamata mine, Chile . 26 Figure 2.5 Native copper infilling cavities in basalt, Wolverine Mine, Michigan, USA (courtesy of James St John—CC-BY-2). 28 Figure 2.6 Giant tube worms surrounding hydrothermal vents (NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Galapagos Rift Expedition 2011) . 28 Figure 2.7 Burial, compaction and coalification forms coal from peat (courtesy of Stephen Greb, Kentucky Geological Survey and University of Kentucky) . 31 Figure 2.8 The genus Glossopteris was a seed bearing plant with fern-like foliage; the name refers to the fossilised leaves that are common in Permian coal deposits (courtesy Daderot CC-zero—Exhibit in the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Texas, USA) . 32 xi xii List of Figures Figure 2.9 Macroscopic classification