Smelting consists of eliminating most of the sulphur (70%) from the copper concentrate.
The concentrate is fed into a reactor (a type of furnace that looks like a large horizontal cylinder) and heated to 1,200 °C to form a mixture of metals called "matte." The sulphur is then released in gaseous form, recovered and recycled.
The matte, which is up to 70% copper, sinks and settles at the bottom of the furnace, where it is recovered through a hole in the lower part of the furnace.
Iron and lead impurities float on the matte where they accumulate and form slag. The slag is skimmed off periodically and returned to the processing cycle to recover any remaining copper.
 |
|
|
 |
Source | |
 |
||
