The capacity of mine containing cuprous sulfides and sulfides with disseminated PGMs is rising faster than mines deriving PGMs from nickel-rich sulfide ores, he said.
It used to be that we got all of our copper either from the very small deposits of pure metallic copper or from the larger deposits of copper sulfides.
Miners can use underwater robots to dig up deposits left from "black smokers, " which are little towers of metallic sulfides that form after magma forces fluids with copper, gold and other metals through the seafloor.