copper stock, page-48

Thanks for the Chem lesson Janti - The LME price is for refined copper as you say - Xstrata have a concentrate plant at Ernest Henry similar to what CDU are building only much larger and without the front end NCU removal equipment,

They put the ore which is mostly dirt through the plant and copper concentrate comes out the other end - It then needs to go through a smelter - they have one at Mt Isa or it could go overseas to smelters with cheaper operating costs. The smeltered ore then goes to a refinery - The Xmen have one of those in Townsville but they are going to close it as it can be done cheaper oversea , same as building Holden cars here in Oz.

It has been mooted that NCU attracts a premium for use in castings and as coolant for smelter feed but there is simply no way a ton of copper nuggets taken from the primary crusher at Rocklands will sell for the price quoted on the CDU website.