Copper systems guide
Grade Control and Ore Routing
How production-scale sampling and models guide material destinations.
Systems note: examples are educational; exact performance depends on the site, material, equipment and applicable standards.
Where this fits in the copper system
How production-scale sampling and models guide material destinations.
Core concepts
Grade-control decisions operate at a finer scale than early resource estimates.
Routing errors can reduce plant performance or send valuable material to the wrong destination.
Stockpile tracking preserves material identity for later blending.
What to watch in practice
Useful measures depend on the exact system, but operators and engineers generally combine material flow, quality, recovery or efficiency, equipment reliability, energy/water use, inventory and downstream requirements rather than optimizing one number in isolation.