ChemConnections: Should We Recommend Building a Copper Mine?

Copper: what is its source, and what does it cost? Does it matter how we produce it? What are the environmental consequences?

In this module students explore the science behind these questions and develop informed answers. Case teaching, collaborative laboratory work, and classroom group problems are used to teach redox reactions, acid/base reactions, solubility, and electrochemical equilibria. Teams of students perform their own analysis and hydro-metallurgical processing of an ore sample.