to Metals
to Extractive metallurgy
Dr. Dmitri Kopeliovich
Manufacture of copper and its alloys has a long history of thousands of years.
The basic compounds contained by the copper ores are either copper sulfide or copper oxides.
Copper ores are poor; therefore commercial extraction of copper involves several dressing operations before the smelting stage.
The following technological operations are carried out for copper production from sulfide ores:
This operation is conducted in a flotation chamber where the ground ore mixed with water is treated by air bubbles which move upward and cause flotation of the mineral particles to the top of the chamber.
The copper concentrate formed in this stage contains about 15% of copper.
At this stage the concentrate is smelted in a reverberatory furnace to produce a mixture of copper and iron, called matte.
The gangue is absorbed by the slag and removed.
At this stage the matte is converted into molten copper and iron-rich slag by blowing air through the matte.
The resulted copper melt contains about 98% of copper.
Impure copper anodes are immersed in a sulfuric acid bath. Pure copper foil (starting sheet) serves as the cathode where copper deposits.
Cathodes produced as a result of the electrolytic refining process contain 99.99% of copper.
The pure copper cathodes are used for manufacturing copper and copper alloys products.
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