argument71[Jet小组]第六次作业

ellefrancaiUID: 2449693

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.
WORDS: 440

The author made conclusion that we can expect the amount of electricity used by the copper-extraction industry to decline significantly is full of logical flaws and we can see them clearly from what the author presented above. I would like to figure out those logical flaws as follows.

Firstly, the author compared the new copper-extracting technologies to the older method on the same standard. What I mean is, according to the argument, the author said that the 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. But when comes to the new copper-extracting technologies, the author said it can use up to 40 percent less electricity than the older one, especially when the proportion of copper in the ore is high. It is clear that the comparison is not fair from the very start. Furthermore, there is no statistically evidence to show that the proportion of copper in the ore is the same or at least similar to each other, which is necessary to make the comparison convincing.  

Also, according to the author, the proportion of copper in the ore can vary considerably. However, in the comparison, the author just compare the amount of electricity used when process the same amount of raw ore new copper-extracting technologies with that of the older method. Although the factor of the amount of raw ore are controled to be the same, the amount of copper in ore is still not sure whether they are the same since the proportion of copper in the ore varies considerably. It is of great possibility that the amount of copper in the ore are different in the ore, which makes the comparison difficult to be accurate. Hence, in order to avoid dubious comparison, accurate measures should be applied.

Furthermore, it is hard to judge whether other minerals and valuable metals in ore influenced the results of the amount of electricity used to extract pure copper. Maybe other minerals mixed with copper in the raw ore when using the new copper-extracting technologies can be wiped off much more easily and using less electricity than those in the raw when using the older method. That is to say, the key factor of the electricity-saving method is not the change of method but those other minerals and value metals mixed with copper in nature in ore.

In sum, the conclusion that the amount of electricity used by the copper-extraction industry will be declined significantly because of the new method that the author made is totally a wrong assertion with little evidences.