Copper smelting in the Americas — 1995-2003 changes in a diverse technological landscape

摘要

The factors driving the profound structural and technological changes which occurred in primary copper smelting in the Americas over the period 1970-1995 were reviewed at the COPPER 95-COBRE 95 conference. In subsequent years, production of primary copper continued to increase in the southern hemisphere, mainly in Chile, but experienced a substantial decrease in North America. A large portion of the additional South American production comes from new leaching-SX-EW operations. In smelting, the 1995-2003 period was characterized by consolidation of the smelting technologies developed in previous years. However, the structural transformations that had affected the industry prior to 1995 continued during this period. In the United States, the number of primary copper smelters shrank even further. In Chile, reverberatory smelting became extinct; the industry became focudsed on decreasing smelter emissions as well as on productivity gains. This paper examines the dynamic of change in copper smelting in the Americas in the period 1995-2003.