Copper continuous smelting at Codelco's El Teniente Division

摘要

In smelters that treat copper concentrates, matte or white metal converting and slag cleaning processes are usually carried out in batch mode furnaces. These types of reactors have low specific productivity indicators. This is the result of their low availability due to the short life of their refractory linings, low efficiency in terms of raw materials consumption and many other operational problems. Codelco Chile, aware of these problems, has been conducting since 1966 a number of research projects aiming to develop new technologies that allow the continuous operation of these reactors. This paper describes the most relevant results obtained during commercial testing of these technologies, as well as the strategy that has been used to incorporate them into the existing El Teniente Caletones Smelter flow sheet within the framework of the Process Quality Control concept. The future of copper pyrometallurgy at El Teniente is also discussed. This analysis permits predicting that "Copper Continuous Smelting" is close to becoming a reality.