Book Description

Bureau of Mines studies of copper-bearing Permian red beds, which extend from north-central Texas through western Oklahoma to southwestern Kansas, indicate heretofore underfined commercial possibilities for low-grade, medium-volume strip-mining operations. Potential ore bodies are indicated containing 0.5 to 1.5 percent copper in zones 6 to 12 inches thick. Cost analysis studies indicate a commercia operation is feasible for a hypothecated 1,000-ton-oer-day ore mining and milling complex where a maximum of 60 feet of over-burden can be stripped in mining a seam of shale 12 inches thick containing 1.2 percent copper.