I live in Swansea, Wales, where almost half of the world copper was smelted during the 19th century. The copper came from Chilli, carried on sailing ships around Cape Horn. During this period it was known a "Copperopolis". The smelting operation created the largest industrially contaminated area in Europe (it looked like the surface of the moon) which was cleared in the 1970's and reused for commercial, recreational and housing. A very interesting look at the work that went into the mining of copper ore. Thanks for another interesting video.
I worked in the copper industry for 30 years as a maintenance mechanic,in all phases in the production of copper,for magma, Bhp copper company in san manuel az and asarco in hayden az
I absolutely enjoy almost everyone of the videos you put out. I also enjoy looking up where these places are now and see what shape they are in. THANK YOU for posting all of these great videos.
I grew up in Morenci and saw quite a bit of this first hand. The smelter eventually expanded to two smokestacks. Unfortunately, a lot of this type of mining is not environmentally friendly. The stream that ran by our high school had toxic waste in it. The air was unbreathable at times because of the sulfur smoke.
Long ago before freeways we would go through Miami-Globe getting home from Texas. Every now and then the mine would be dumping slag off the side of slag mountains. Very cool to watch!
China, India and Russia build a coal fired power plant 1 a month, American power plants and copper smelters have modern pollution controls, that cost the company millions of dollars. China, Russia India has no pollution controls, because there is no EPA over there, like in America
One pound of air takes up 13.33 cubic feet at sea level and 70 degrees F. I am currently in a room that measures 10 by 10 by 9 feet high. So the room contains 900 cubic feet of air. The 900 cubic feet divided by 13.33 cubic feet per pound means the room contains 67.5 pounds of air. Imagine what a great volume of air is required to collect 30 tons of air?
@@normchristopherson5799 Good example. I worked in a 5000 foot deep underground gold mine in Yellowknife, Canada beside the air intake shaft. At the 135 foot level the heavy plank door leading to the air shaft was impossible to open inwards unless the smaller door on it was opened first to let the pressure off it. We opened this larger door to blow the smoke out of our work place. It happened instantly. One had to be very careful not to be in the door jam when closing that door again as it closed with a mighty slam. At the 700 foot level in that tunnel between the air doors being used as part of the air path to the bottom of the mine, one had to lean into the wind if walking that direction. Cloths flapped in the wind. On the surface at the head of the air shaft there were two huge, towering, cast iron, propane gas burners, mounted on edge, one on each side of the shaft that were lit to pre-heat winter air to above freezing. That air temp could have been as low as 40 - 50 below F. Injected sub zero air for months at a time would, of course have frozen everything in its wake, waterlines, gas lines, the ground, ore, etc.. The volumes of air being injected into that mine were immense. Thanks for providing a mental picture of the concept of just how much air that might have been.
@@terrenceprzybylski3226. At the time Obummer was president China was putting a coal fired power plant on line one everyday. For eight years. It slowed down but still at it. That’s why it was such a big deal when Australia stopped shipping. I mean load ships outside Chinese ports were stopped.
@@j.b.4340 No - you cant smelt copper anymore because too many people were trying to eat it so you better not be saying they still do because that means they are still trying to eat it and then they would have to stop smelting it so you better not be
Back in the old days, half cents and cents were made out of pure copper, but by adding a small amount of tin and zinc, they got a much longer-wearing alloy. Pure copper is still found in the middle of the "sandwich" construction of dimes, quarters, and half dollars.
Well...People at the time had to use the knowledge and technology they had at the time BUT today this whole precess would be considered way too poluting. I know we have to mine for minerals BUT we also have to protect the environment...after all we are part of the environment also. So protecting the environment..ie the land, water and air, we are also protecting ourselves.
Those guys at 15:19 swaddled in work clothes and leather so they can withstand the heat given off by that furnace have the hottest job I’ve seen. I’ve welded over uninsulated steam lines in the south Florida summer and thought that was hot! 🥵
@@exponentialnegative1 First of all, you can mark videos with watermarks that are not visible, and if you need a visible mark, you can also choose a smaller logo in the upper corner of the video. TV stations do it that way too, or at least place the marker at the bottom and not almost in the middle.
@@SciDOCMBC Invisible watermarks and those too small or out of the way will not deter video pirates who download the videos and put them on their own channels. I put a watermark on my videos as well. Periscope's watermark is only marginally annoying. It's worth it to see the videos they post, IMHO.
