Classifications

• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C22—METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
  • C22B—PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
  • C22B15/00—Obtaining copper
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C22—METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
  • C22B—PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
  • C22B15/00—Obtaining copper
  • C22B15/0026—Pyrometallurgy
  • C22B15/0028—Smelting or converting
  • C22B15/0047—Smelting or converting flash smelting or converting
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C22—METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
  • C22B—PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
  • C22B15/00—Obtaining copper
  • C22B15/0026—Pyrometallurgy
  • C22B15/0054—Slag, slime, speiss, or dross treating
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
  • Y02P10/00—Technologies related to metal processing
  • Y02P10/20—Recycling

Definitions

• This invention relates to a pyrometallurgical method of producing blister copper in a smelting reactor, such as a suspension smelting furnace, directly from its sulfidic concentrate and/or finely ground copper matte.
• a well-known method of the prior art is to produce raw copper or blister copper from a sulfidic concentrate in several stages, whereby the concentrate is smelted in a suspension reactor, such as a suspension smelting furnace, with air or oxygen-enriched air, which results in copper-rich matte containing 50 - 75 weight-% copper and slag.
• a suspension reactor such as a suspension smelting furnace
• air or oxygen-enriched air which results in copper-rich matte containing 50 - 75 weight-% copper and slag.
• the copper content of the concentrate is high enough, typically at least 37 weight-% copper, as for example at the Olympic Dam smelter in Australia, where the copper content of the concentrate normally exceeds 40 weight-%, it is possible economically to produce blister directly in one stage.
• the slag amount is moderate, but in order to produce blister, which has low sulphur content, less than 1 weight-% sulphur, the oxidation conditions must be selected so that the produced slag contains 15 -25 weight-% copper.
• Concentrate with a lower copper content can also be suitable for direct blister production, if it has an advantageous composition.
• blister copper is produced from concentrate in one stage, since the iron content is low and the resulting amount of slag is not significantly high.
• the production of copper in one stage with the normal concentrates causes slagging of all the iron and other gangues. This type of method is described in the US patent 4,030,915.
• the FI patent 104838 describes a method to produce blister copper in a suspension reactor directly from a sulfidic copper concentrate, whereby the concentrate, flux and oxygen-enriched air are fed into the reactor.
• the cooled and finely-ground copper matte is fed into the suspension reactor along with the concentrate in order to bind the heat released from the concentrate and to decrease the amount of slag relatively, whereby the degree of oxygen enrichment of the air fed to the reactor is at least 50 % oxygen.
• This FI patent 104838 is however, limiting the process to areas, where the oxygen enrichment is higher than 50 % oxygen and on the other hand the concentrate quality is limited to above 31 % copper in a concentrate.
• the patent is limited to use both iron silicate slag (essentially free from calcia) and calcium ferrite slag (essentially free from silicate) depending on the concentrate quality.
• the PCT patent application WO 00/09772 describes a method of smelting copper sulphide concentrate by oxygen-smelting the copper sulphide concentrate, and removing most of the iron in the copper sulphide concentrate into slag as well as removing part or most of the sulphur therein as sulphur dioxide SO 2 , thereby obtaining copper from sulphide concentrate as white metal, nearly white metal matte or blister copper.
• the object of that PCT patent application WO 00/09772 is to provide a copper sulphide concentrate smelting process for producing white metal or blister copper with continuous oxidation of copper sulphide concentrate or matte at the temperature of 1300 °C or less, without magnetite complications, which is applicable for the treatment of copper sulphide concentrate or matte containing SiO 2 , with less loss of copper to slag, capable of recovering copper content of slag by flotation, with high removability of arsenic, antimony and lead into slag, and with less erosion of refractories.
• the slag amount is more than doubled.
• the highest CaO/SiO 2 ratio is 1.5.
• the object of the invention is to eliminate drawbacks of the prior art and to achieve an improved method to produce blister copper or high grade matte in a suspension reactor directly from a sulfidic concentrate and/or finely ground copper matte wherein both silica (SiO 2 ) and lime (CaO) bearing materials are also fed in order to form a slag, which is fluid at the temperature range of 1250 - 1350 °C.
• silica (SiO 2 ) and lime (CaO) bearing materials are also fed in order to form a slag, which is fluid at the temperature range of 1250 - 1350 °C.
• a copper sulphide concentrate and/or copper matte with oxygen-containing gas is fed into a smelting reactor, such as a suspension smelting furnace, into which both silica (SiO 2 ) and lime (CaO) bearing materials are also fed in order to form a slag so that the CaO/Si0 2 ratio in the slag is higher than 1.5, and which slag is fluid at the temperature range of 1250 - 1350 °C.
• a smelting reactor such as a suspension smelting furnace
• silica (SiO 2 ) and lime (CaO) bearing materials are also fed in order to form a slag so that the CaO/Si0 2 ratio in the slag is higher than 1.5, and which slag is fluid at the temperature range of 1250 - 1350 °C.
• Essential to the slag fluidity is that the slag also contains copper in oxidized form at least 6 weight percent.
• the method of the invention is based on the fact that oxidized copper in slag fluxes effectively both magnetite and dicalcium silicate, which limits the applicability of the CaO-SiO 2 -FeO x slag in the copper smelting.
• oxidized copper in slag fluxes effectively both magnetite and dicalcium silicate, which limits the applicability of the CaO-SiO 2 -FeO x slag in the copper smelting.
• the sulphur content in copper is below 0.8 weight-%
• part of the copper in the concentrate and/or in the finely ground matte is oxidized causing the fluxing effect, which allows the widening of the operation window, i.e.
• the method of the invention produces blister copper or high grade matte in a smelting reactor from a mixture of copper concentrate and/or matte as well as silicate containing material and lime containing material.
• the cooled and finely ground copper matte is fed into the smelting reactor in order to produce blister copper with lower than 1.0 weight-% sulphur and a relatively low amount of slag, in which the activity of lime is high in order to increase the slagging of arsenic and antimony, but in which the activity of silica is high in order to eliminate lead from the blister copper.
• the finely ground matte fed into the blister furnace may be matte produced in any kind of known smelting furnace having a copper content of 60 - 78 weight- %.
• a single suspension smelting unit may be designed directly as a blister smelter depending on the copper content and composition of the available concentrates and on the amount of the finely ground matte.
• the slag is treated further in a single-stage or preferably two-stage slag cleaning.
• the two-stage cleaning method includes either two electric furnaces or an electric furnace and a slag concentrating plant. If the slag is treated in a slag concentrating plant, the slag concentrate can be fed back into the smelting reactor. Blister copper goes for normal refining in an anode furnace.
• the slag produced in the blister smelting stage can be preferably granulated and fed into the primary smelting furnace for copper recovery.
• the economy of this depends on the amount of the concentrate in the feed mixture and on the slag amount produced.
• the slag from the primary smelting furnace goes then to a normal single-stage slag cleaning or directly disposed (an electric furnace, a slag cleaning furnace or slag flotation) depending on the copper content of the slag.
• Fig. 2 shows the distribution coefficient of arsenic between slag and blister copper in different slag types as a function of the normalized oxygen partial pressure in blister copper according to the example 1 ,
• Fig. 3 shows the distribution coefficient of lead between slag and blister copper in different slag types as a function of the normalized oxygen partial pressure in blister copper according to the example 1 ,
• Blister copper was produced in a suspension mini pilot smelting furnace in a series of tests, where the copper containing raw materials were finely grained copper matte (72.3 weight-% Cu, 3.4 weight-% Fe, 20.3 weight-% S) and copper concentrate (29.2 weight-% Cu, 33.7 weight-% S, 21.0 weight-% Fe).
• the mixture of copper matte and concentrate (kg matte)/(kg matte + kg concentrate)*100 was ranging between 50 - 100 %.
• the feed rate was 100 - 200 kg/h.
• the oxidation degree of blister copper produced was controlled by the oxygen coefficient (Nm 3 O 2 /ton of feed), and the slag composition (CaO/SiO 2 , Fe/SiO 2 in slag) was controlled by adding silica sand and lime to the feed. After each period, during which the process parameters were kept constant, the slag and blister were tapped out of the settler of the mini pilot furnace and the produced blister copper and slag was analysed. The average sulphur content of the blister was 0.2 weight-% sulphur (0.01-0.89 % sulphur).
• Matte feed rate 89.7 kg/h Matte quality (3.4 % Fe, 18.2 % S, 0.26 % As, 0.2 % Pb) 72.3 % Cu
• the one of the CaO/SiO 2 slag is higher at the same oxygen potential showing the much higher ability to remove arsenic from blister.
• Figure 3 shows the distribution coefficient of lead between slag and blister copper
• _ Pb (slag/Cu) (% Pb in slag)/(% Pb in blister) in different slag types as a function of normalized oxygen partial pressure in blister copper. It can be seen that when the CaO/SiO 2 ratio (at a given Fe/SiO 2 ratio) of the slag increases the distribution coefficient of lead,
• the CaO/SiO 2 ratio is higher than 1.5, the distribution coefficient of lead increases, when the CaO content in the system is decreasing.
• the 200 cP viscosity temperature increases when the CaO content of the slag is decreasing. Based on theoretical calculations the solid magnetite formation is limiting the usability of this kind of slag as shown with the dashed line in Figure 7.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
• Materials Engineering (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Metallurgy (AREA)
• Organic Chemistry (AREA)
• Manufacture And Refinement Of Metals (AREA)
• Processing Of Solid Wastes (AREA)

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Citations (6)

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• 2001
  • 2001-09-21 FI FI20011859A patent/FI115536B/fi not_active IP Right Cessation
• 2002
  • 2002-09-10 PE PE2002000889A patent/PE20030425A1/es active IP Right Grant
  • 2002-09-20 WO PCT/FI2002/000748 patent/WO2003025236A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2002-09-20 EP EP02760343A patent/EP1436434A1/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2002-09-20 YU YU24704A patent/YU24704A/sh unknown
  • 2002-09-20 AU AU2002325965A patent/AU2002325965B2/en not_active Expired
  • 2002-09-20 CA CA2459962A patent/CA2459962C/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2002-09-20 JP JP2003530006A patent/JP3828541B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2002-09-20 BR BR0212651-6A patent/BR0212651A/pt not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2002-09-20 US US10/490,236 patent/US20040244534A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2002-09-20 KR KR1020047003951A patent/KR100929520B1/ko active IP Right Grant
  • 2002-09-20 PL PL368532A patent/PL197523B1/pl unknown
  • 2002-09-20 CN CNB028183479A patent/CN1295364C/zh not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2002-09-20 MX MXPA04002601A patent/MXPA04002601A/es active IP Right Grant
  • 2002-09-20 RO ROA200400218A patent/RO122640B1/ro unknown
  • 2002-09-20 EA EA200400266A patent/EA005386B1/ru not_active IP Right Cessation
• 2004
  • 2004-03-09 ZA ZA200401902A patent/ZA200401902B/en unknown

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