Argument71 candygan【CSMY作文互改小组】第七次作业

candyganUID: 201665

TOPIC: ARGUMENT71 - Copper occurs in nature mixed with other minerals and valuable metals in ore, and the proportion of copper in the ore can vary considerably. Until fairly recently, the only way to extract pure copper from ore was by using a process that requires large amounts of electric energy, especially if the proportion of copper in the ore is low. New copper-extracting technologies can use up to 40 percent less electricity than the older method to process the same amount of raw ore, especially when the proportion of copper in the ore is high. Therefore, we can expect the amount of electricity used by the copper-extraction industry to decline significantly.
                    DATE: 2007-01-24
提纲：
1、            关于铜矿的具体信息：富矿与贫矿的差别程度，矿的储藏量，矿的开采量这些关系到以后矿的供给情况的信息原文没有。
2、            即便矿的供给充足，原文没有给出全面比较新技术和旧方法的信息。旧方法还是在应用上比新技术更好。
3、            对于以后铜的需求量没有介绍，以现在的处理量来衡量以后的电耗量是不可靠的。

正文：
The speaker said that we can expect the amount of electricity used by the copper-extraction industry to decline significantly, which is obviously a conclusion. However, without information about the ore utilization condition trend, and without an instruction of the differences between the old and new copper-extraction methods, the assertion can hardly hold water.
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To begin with, although the argument gives some useful information about the condition of the copper ore, there is still lack of concrete information about the ore quality, the ore reserve and produced quantity. First, it is important that how degree the ore is rich or poor defined. Perhaps the rich copper ore (as the argument mentioned) is the one with 70% proportion copper, while the poor copper ore is with a corporation as 20% or even lower. From the argument, it seems how rich the ore is determining how easy the extraction can be done. Secondly, the high grade ore may be just 30% of total copper ore reserve, while the rest are all with poor quality and difficult to be extracted. Since the cost of rich copper ore is relatively lower than that of the poor, companies are more likely to use the rich ore other than the poor ore and the volume of rich ore are declining. Thus, although it may be better to use new technologies to extract rich copper ore, for the ore that is available now is just the poor ore, the new technologies cannot make the electricity-utilization significantly lower than before. Therefore, without this kind of information, the argument cannot draw any conclusion about future electricity-utility related with ore storage.

Even there is data showed that the rich ore is sufficient for extraction by the utilization condition today, the arguer fails to give the information on the full-scale comparison between the new technologies and the old ones. After all, besides the power-cost on dealing with the rich copper ore, there are other important aspects which will determine the application of the new technologies: for instance, the whole cost of the application between the new tech and the old one, the demand of condition to use the methods. It may be that most companies cannot afford the cost of equipment and the installation of line of new technologies. Unless the arguer give sufficient evidence on the benefits and availability about the new tech, the prediction is hardly compelling.  
  
Additionally, the argument fails to give any information about the copper demand trend, which is of great importance to the electric utilization in future. Maybe since the global economic is warming up, other industries like car and electric appliance need more copper than before, and thus the need of copper is increasing every year. Correspondingly, the copper-extraction industry need to product more than before. Perhaps although using the new tech, since the base number of processing ore increased twice than last decades (which was 2 million tons) and the total used electricity is increased than before. Thus, without giving the information about the demand trend, the prediction is unbelievable.

In sum, without give other more important information mentioned above, the conclusion cannot draw from the argument. The arguer should give more details on ore recovery volume and copper market demand conditions before, and show data and information on the benefits of the new tech, make me to believe that the whole industry will take this new tech. Without these, the prediction cannot be made.