Copper beneficiation and smelting

Copper minerals are mainly primary minerals, so it is easy to use flotation to concentrate concentrates. Grade and amount of copper concentrate pyrite symbiotic related copper grade between 20% to 30%, Fe 20% to 30% are between 20% to 40% sulfur.

Fire method is the main technology of copper smelting. After the concentrate is selected for smelting, the sulfur is oxidized to sulfur dioxide, and most of the iron is oxidized to oxide and the gangue together becomes slag. Copper and other non-ferrous metals and the remaining iron sulfide generation, known as matte (matte). The matte is then oxidized and removed by blowing sulfur to obtain crude copper, which is further refined and cast into an anode plate, and an electrolytic copper product is obtained by electrolysis. Volatile symbiotic elements are recovered in soot, and precious metals are recovered in the anode mud. The advantage of the fire method is that the heat generated by the oxidation of sulfur and iron is fully utilized; the recovery rate of the precious metal is high; the slag is stable; and the environmental impact is small. The disadvantage is that it is easy to cause air pollution; it is restricted by the sulfuric acid market. The fire method has the characteristics that the higher the grade of the concentrate, the larger the scale, the better the economic index.

The output of the world's major copper producing countries is shown in Table 1. Since copper is very stable and is not oxidized in the air, its recycling rate is high.

Table 1 Production of major copper producing countries in the world in 2000 (10,000 t)

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