Spiralpiece
Fly on the Wall
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Over the last couple of years, I've noticed some metal on the back of trucks while driving highways on the east, southeast, and northeast side of Arizona.
Five separate flatbed trucks today (sometimes in groups of 3 or 4 from my past sightings) with 3 groups of what look to be large 3'x3' copper plates chained standing up on them. (Not piles or laid in rows, but vertically stacked side-by-side.)
3 groups chained down x 14-18 plates per chained group.
The plates I estimate to be approximately 2-4 inches thick (never really seen one of these trucks stopped, and today I saw one stopped but didn't dart across to the same pull-out just to satisfy my curiosity.) There is a ASARCO copper smelting operation out near Winkelman/Hayden, AZ that I suspect is generating them (because I've seen them now along this road about 5 or 6 times, middle of the day, never at night.)
Originally I was just trying to post a question to maybe some hauler/mining/engineer/smelter-knowledge types. Research and curiosity got me to an answer of what the damn things are, that I can now share with you all in my edits.
Edits after spending way too long on this *%&#ing non-PM related post:
1) I suppose if I just posted the damn question instead of spending another 40 minutes looking for a picture of the thing...
2) YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO FIND THE IMAGE OF THAT DAMN CHUNK OF METAL. It's a Copper Anode. Christ that took way too long. I wish I was an engineer sometimes.
3) There's only 3 copper smelters left in the USA, from what I gather from this source.
4) Kitco copper price link.
5) Even if they are 36"x36", and 3 inches thick, according to this method, they'd weigh about 1,255 pounds per anode?? (3 x 36 x 36 x .322). That's wild.
EVEN @ est. 2 in.thick - (2 x 36 x 36 x .322) = 834 lbs/anode x $3.5149/lb = $2,933/anode x est 14 per group = $41,062 x 3 groups chained per truck = approx. $123,186 x 5 trucks spotted today = A minimum of $615,930 estimated on the road that I saw today.
Well this was a fun exercise... any miners/smelter experienced in the audience?
Five separate flatbed trucks today (sometimes in groups of 3 or 4 from my past sightings) with 3 groups of what look to be large 3'x3' copper plates chained standing up on them. (Not piles or laid in rows, but vertically stacked side-by-side.)
3 groups chained down x 14-18 plates per chained group.
The plates I estimate to be approximately 2-4 inches thick (never really seen one of these trucks stopped, and today I saw one stopped but didn't dart across to the same pull-out just to satisfy my curiosity.) There is a ASARCO copper smelting operation out near Winkelman/Hayden, AZ that I suspect is generating them (because I've seen them now along this road about 5 or 6 times, middle of the day, never at night.)
Originally I was just trying to post a question to maybe some hauler/mining/engineer/smelter-knowledge types. Research and curiosity got me to an answer of what the damn things are, that I can now share with you all in my edits.
Edits after spending way too long on this *%&#ing non-PM related post:
1) I suppose if I just posted the damn question instead of spending another 40 minutes looking for a picture of the thing...
2) YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO FIND THE IMAGE OF THAT DAMN CHUNK OF METAL. It's a Copper Anode. Christ that took way too long. I wish I was an engineer sometimes.
3) There's only 3 copper smelters left in the USA, from what I gather from this source.
4) Kitco copper price link.
5) Even if they are 36"x36", and 3 inches thick, according to this method, they'd weigh about 1,255 pounds per anode?? (3 x 36 x 36 x .322). That's wild.
EVEN @ est. 2 in.thick - (2 x 36 x 36 x .322) = 834 lbs/anode x $3.5149/lb = $2,933/anode x est 14 per group = $41,062 x 3 groups chained per truck = approx. $123,186 x 5 trucks spotted today = A minimum of $615,930 estimated on the road that I saw today.
Well this was a fun exercise... any miners/smelter experienced in the audience?