New Kupferschiefer Copper Assessment Available

SPOKANE, Wash. — In cooperation with the Polish Geological Institute — National Research Institute, U.S. Geological Survey scientists have published a new assessment of copper resources in Poland and Germany. This investigation is part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Global Mineral Resource Assessment. The study synthesizes available information on known resources and estimates the location and quantity of undiscovered copper associated with the well-known late Permian (approximately 255 million years old), carbon-enriched shale, the Kupferschiefer, of the Southern Permian Basin in Europe.

The ore deposits associated with the Kupferschiefer in Germany and Poland have been mined for over 800 years and are world-famous among geologists because research on these deposits played a significant role in the scientific debates on ore genesis. The largest Kupferschiefer copper deposit occurs in the Lubin-Sieroszowice mining area, Poland. It is the largest copper deposit in Europe and one of the largest copper deposits on the Earth.

Most of the known copper resource and almost all of the estimated undiscovered copper resources occur in southwestern Poland and adjacent parts of eastern Germany. Since 1958, about 15 million metric tons of copper have been produced, and about 30 million metric tons of discovered copper remains to be developed. The USGS estimates a mean value of 110 million metric tons of copper may be undiscovered to a depth of 2.5 km below the surface in this area. Most of the undiscovered resource in southwestern Poland would be deeper than 1.5 km, where virgin rock temperatures exceed 50 degrees C (122 degrees F).

In 800 years of mining, about 2.6 million metric tons of copper were produced from Kupferschiefer deposits in east-central Germany. The areas near the deposits in east-central Germany have been well explored; less than one million metric tons of discovered copper remain in identified deposits. Mean undiscovered copper estimates for this area are about 20 million metric tons.

This USGS study supports previous findings by the Polish Geological Institute for the amount of undiscovered copper in Poland. Mean values from the USGS study are remarkably similar to the values estimated by Polish geologists. The USGS study differs from the Polish study in that two different methods are used to probabilistically estimate the amount of undiscovered copper and maps are included to show where undiscovered resources are likely to occur.

The full report, USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5090–U, “Assessment of undiscovered copper resources associated with the Permian Kupferschiefer, Southern Permian Basin, Europe,” by Michael Zientek and others, is availableonline.

Additional USGS mineral resource assessment results and reports, including previous volumes of this publication series, and an estimate of undiscovered copper resource of the world in 2013, are online.