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Copper Production

The document describes the copper manufacturing process from mining copper ore to producing copper rods. It involves several steps: 1) Mining copper ore and processing it into copper concentrate, 2) Smelting the concentrate in furnaces to produce matte and slag, 3) Converting and refining the matte through additional smelting and electrolysis to produce copper anodes, 4) Casting the anodes into continuous copper rods, 5) Recovering sulfur dioxide from the smelting process to produce sulfuric acid. Industrial waste from the process includes slag, dust and liquid effluent which are recycled or treated.

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247 views

Copper Production

The document describes the copper manufacturing process from mining copper ore to producing copper rods. It involves several steps: 1) Mining copper ore and processing it into copper concentrate, 2) Smelting the concentrate in furnaces to produce matte and slag, 3) Converting and refining the matte through additional smelting and electrolysis to produce copper anodes, 4) Casting the anodes into continuous copper rods, 5) Recovering sulfur dioxide from the smelting process to produce sulfuric acid. Industrial waste from the process includes slag, dust and liquid effluent which are recycled or treated.

Uploaded by

kamal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Description of the manufacturing process

Mining:
Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd. (SIIL) operates one copper mine in Australia through
its subsidiary.
Copper Concentrates
Copper concentrate is the result of a flotation process after the copper ore has been
mined and milled. Copper concentrate is an intermediate product used as raw
material in the production of copper metal. The quality of different copper
concentrates can vary but copper sulphide concentrates are the most common and
they typically contain around 30 per cent copper, 30 per cent iron and 30 per cent
sulphur. Besides these elements they generally also contain some gold and silver.
1.smelter process
Sterlite copper smelter produces 900 TPD of copper anodes from copper
concentrate.
1.1Raw materials
Copper concentrate The copper concentrate used will be containing 27% 32% Cu and will be sourced globally.
Limestone, silica Limestone, silica will be charged into the furnace to
achieve desired chemistry of the slag. All these will be sourced indigenously.
Liquid fuels Furnace Oil & High Speed Diesel these are used in Smelting
Furnace Lance, Smelting Furnace Burners, Converters and Anode Furnace
Burners.
2. Manufacturing Process
2.1 First stage Smelting (ISA/RHF)
The copper concentrate containing about 28 -32% copper is mixed with
required fluxes like limestone, silica and fed to the smelting furnace. This feed
is smelted in the ISA smelt Furnace with the help of oxygen & air supplied
through the lance. The products of smelting are matte containing 62 65 %
copper and slag containing mostly iron silicate form.
The matte/slag mixture is tapped from the smelting furnace into a rotary
holding furnace where the matte & slag are separated because of difference
in density. Slag is directly tapped into the Slag Granulation system and
granulated by high-pressure water. Matte is trapped into ladles and charged
into the converters for further enrichment of copper.

2.2 secondary stage smelting (convertor /scf /anode furnace)


The clean matte from RHF is treated in converters for further enrichment of
copper. The matte is oxidized in the converters by means of the air supplied
by the blowers along with flux in the form of silica (Quartz). The process air is
injected into the converters through the arrangement called tuyers. The
product from the converter is called as Blister Copper.
Composition of Blister Copper
Copper
Iron

98.5%
0.7%

Sulphur

0.1%

Oxygen

0.5%

The slag generated from the converters is fed into the slag cleaning furnace. In the
slag cleaning furnace the matte is segregated from the slag by gravity separation.
The clean slag is granulated and the segregated matte is returned back to the
converters for recovering the copper.
The Blister is taken to the anode furnace for the final purification. In the anode
furnace the blister copper is initially oxidized with process air to remove the traces
of so2. In this process some oxygen gets dissolved in the copper bath. The refined
copper is cast in the shape of anodes. These anodes are dispatched to the refinery
unit for further refining.
3. Intermediate product
Matte and slag are intermediate products in the smelting process.
Matte composition
Copper
Iron

60-65%
20.25%

Sulphur

23.64%

SiO2

<0.1%

CaO

<0.1%

SLAG COMPOSITION
Copper
Iron

0.50%
33.70%

Sulphur
SiO2

0.20%
32%

4. off gas from the process


Sulfur dioxide SO2 bearing gas generated during the smelting process is
cooled in gas collers and sent to electrostatic precipitators for removal of dust. The
cleaned gas is sent to sulfuric acid plant for production of sulfuric acid.
The so2 gas from the off gas of the smelting is converted into sulfuric acid.
The fugitive gas from ISA & RHF are scrubbed and vented through a stack. The
fugitive gases are collected by double hood system and then scrubbed and vented
through stack. The off gas from the anode furnaces (oxidation process) & slag
cleaning furnaces are scrubbed and vented through a stack.
ACID SECTION
The gas from the furnace is collected through duct. The gas is cleaned in gas
cleaning section, and saturated with water at 35 c. in convertor sulfur dioxide reacts
with oxygen to form sulfur trioxide.
The reaction is
SO2 + O2 =SO3
Then this SO3 is sent to sulphuric acid plant where the convertor is maintained at 98
C to 100 C.
Sulphuric Acid Plant
The sulphur dioxide gases generated in the smelting process is collected and ducted
to the Sulphuric Acid Plant. Set up with basic engineering from Kvaerner Chemetics,
Canada, the plant is based on the absorption process known as DCDA, and has a
designed capacity to produce 1600 tonnes of sulphuric acid per day.
Phosphoric Acid Plant
Sulphuric acid is reacted with rock phosphate in the Phosphoric Acid Plant to
produce phosphoric acid. Technology and basic engineering for this plant has been
sourced from Hydro Agri International, UK, and the process used is known as Hemihydrate Di Hydrate Process. The plant has an installed capacity to produce 180,000
tonnes of Phosphoric Acid per annum.
Refining:
The Refineries convert Copper anodes to electrolytic grade Copper cathodes of
99.99% purity. Electrolysis process deposits pure copper (99.99%) on the stainless

steel cathode plates. The impurities and precious metals contained in anodes settle
down as anode slimes. Cathodes are then automatically washed, stripped and
packed. Continuous monitoring and analysis of refining process through an
advanced DCS system ensures close process control.
Precious Metals Recovery
During the electro-refining process, precious metals like gold, silver and platinum
present in the anode settle down at the bottom of the cells along with other
impurities. This collection is known as anode slime and it is subjected to
atmospheric leaching for recovery of copper -- filtered, dried and bagged. The
leached slime is exported for recovery of precious metals.
Continuous Cast Rod (CCR)
The plants have total annual capacity of 240,000 tonnes.
Cathodes are melted in a vertical shaft furnace. The molten copper is transferred to
the casting Wheel through a holding Furnace. Highly accurate measurement and
control systems are used to maintain optimum level of molten metal, which is cast
into the form of a continuous bar. The continuously cast copper bar is fed into the
rolling mill consisting of a unique combination of 2-roll and 3-roll configuration
designed to produce excellent quality of rods in different sizes. Online pickling,
drying and waxing ensure that the rod is free of oxide scales.
Copper rod is coiled in an Orbital laying form to ensure freedom from entanglement
while uncoiling by the customers. Each coil is compacted, strapped and wrapped
with polyethylene wraps, and stretch-wrapped to prevent contamination with dust
and ensure excellent arrival condition at the customers end.
5.

Industrial waste

SOLID: Slag is produced at an average of 1700 tons per day which is a totally inert
materials will be used for short blasting, land filling and road building activities. A
portion of the slag generated is sold and the rest are dumped in the storage yard.
The ESP dust collected in the ESP & dust collected from gas cooler are recycled back
in the smelting process immediately.
LIQUID: From the smelter liquid effluent generation will be mainly cooling tower
blow down which is recycled back into the system and scrubber bleed off which is
treated by ETP.

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