
Originally Posted by
AAInt
Does anyone happen to know the industry/industries that buy LEAD ORE ,ZINC ORE ,COPPER ORE, or IRON ORE?
In most cases no one will buy ore, the ore needs to be enriched to a concentrate, to bring up the grades to a point where it is economical to ship and refine into a metal. Most ore is processed at the mine site into a concentrate and then shipped to various smelters and refiners. This is big business, very few small players in this business.
For lead and zinc, there is the Teck-Cominco smelter in Trail, BC, Canada. For copper, there is the Glencore smelter in Quebec, Canada. These are all I know of in North America. They won't be interested unless you have at least several hundred tonnes of concentrate. Minimum grades need to be 20-30%, and they are very specific with what kind of impurites are allowed and at what maximum concentrations. For example there are maximum allowable levels of things like arsenic in the concentrate, if your concentrate exceeds these levels, there will be a penalty deducted from the final payout. You need to get a good representative sample, and have it assayed, probably before you even talk to them.
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