Modern continuous smelting and converting by bath smelting technology

摘要

Throughout much of the twentieth century, bath smelting technologies have been important for the production and refining of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, a trend which is expected to continue into the next century. This situation is no less true than with copper pyrometallurgy where such primary smelting and converting technologies now account for about 30percent of world copper output. Actually the notion of employing a metallurgical melt stirred in some manner for metal smelting and refining reactions has been in existence for several throusand years. It is the perfection of the technology to efficiently process huge tonnages of raw material which is the legacy belonging to the latter half of our century. Drawing on the more recent examples in copper pyrometallurgy, this paper provides a brief review of developments in bath smelting and converting from these perspectives. The current state of process knowledge of modern bath smelting operations, such as those typified by the Noranda and El Teniente processes and modern converting technologies, is then examined using examples from both operational and research-orientated developments. Professor Keith Brimacombe contributed much towards our present understanding of these modern processes, and his contribution in this area is evaluated and recognized. The authors also provide some comments on the future of these technologies as the world enters the twenty-first century.