The difference between fire smelting and wet copper smelting

The development of smelting has gone through a very long process, but so far the smelting of copper is still dominated by fire rule-making, and its output accounts for about 85% of the world's total copper production. However, modern wet smelting technology is gradually being promoted, wet smelting The introduction has greatly reduced the cost of copper smelting. Copper suppliers compare the difference between fire smelting and wet copper smelting.

Fire smelting
Including four steps of roasting, smelting, blowing, refining, and steps for wet copper smelting

(1) Calcination removes some or all of the sulfur in the concentrate, and at the same time removes some volatile impurities such as arsenic and antimony.

(2) Smelting is the oxidation of a part of iron in copper concentrate or roasting ore, and slag removal with gangue, flux, etc., to produce a matte with a higher copper content.

(3) Blowing can eliminate smoke and recover sulfur from concentrate.

(4) Refining and pyrometallurgical refining and electrolytic refining. Fire refining is the use of certain impurities to have a greater affinity for oxygen than copper, and its oxide is insoluble in copper and other properties, and is removed by oxidation or slagging or volatilization.
The equipment for pyrometallurgical smelting is complicated and the process flow is also complicated, and the energy consumption is high. However, since the selection is copper ore with a relatively large copper ore type, the quality of the smelting is relatively high and no impurities. . However, the environmental pollution is serious and sulfur dioxide will be emitted in large quantities.

Wet copper smelting

It is the use of sulfuric acid to convert the copper element in the low-quality copper ore with less ore type into soluble copper sulfate, and then put the iron into the copper sulfate solution to replace the copper. The principle is to replace the required metal with a displacement reaction.

The equipment for wet copper smelting is simple and the process flow is also very simple and low-cost. However, since the selection is to select low-quality copper ore with less ore type, the quality of smelting is relatively low. But the environmental pollution is relatively low