1. Pyrometallurgy

The conventional thermal route is designed to extract the copper contained in concentrates from mineralurgical operations. It comprises several stages leading to the production of unrefined copper.

The first stage consists of partial or total desulfurization, copper sulfate production or elimination of undesirable elements by roasting.

The second stage consists of melting all the components of the charge in a furnace at a sufficiently high temperature to reach the liquid state. Depending on the process used, combustion and reaction gases are produced, which must be treated. The type of smelting operated with copper ores is a smelting for matte, a mixture of molten sulfides, which aims to gather copper and all chalcophilic elements (Ni, Co, Pb, Zn, precious metals, As, Sb, Se, Bi, Te...), rejecting iron and gangue elements in the form of...