Cu, Ni, Co Slag Cleaning
Overview
Slag Cleaning: The Chilean Copper
Smelter Experience
Sergio Demetrio, Jorge Ahumada, Miguel Ángel Durán, Ernest Mast, Ulises Rojas, José Sanhueza, Pedro Reyes,
and Edmundo Morales
Chile has seven copper smelters, four
that are linked to primary producers (three
owned by Codelco and one by Disputada)
and three custom smelters (two owned by
Enami and one by Noranda). Each smelter
employs a different strategy for slag clean-
ing, thus each smelter obtains different re-
sults. This article outlines and compares the
different slag-cleaning systems that are cur-
rently in operation in the Chilean smelters,
their strategies, the equipment in use, and
their experiences.
INTRODUCTION
There are seven copper smelters in
operation in Chile. The mission, objec-
tives, strategies, and goals of each
smelter, in general, differ from each other
due to their history and experience (e.g.,
orientation to the technology or the op-
erational system or dedication to cus-
tom or cost), the concentrates smelted
(e.g., own or custom, secondary or pri-
mary, clean or dirty, from an open pit or
underground mine, and a small number
of suppliers with big volumes or a large
number of small suppliers), and the
smelter’s location (e.g., desert or green
valley, distance from a port, proximity
to a city or town, elevation, and local
atmospheric conditions).
There are multiple slag-cleaning sys-
tems used in Chilean smelters, with dif-
ferences occurring within the same com-
pany. This variation is due to such fac-
tors as the copper price when the slag-
cleaning system was selected, the plant
lay-out, equipment availability, associ-
ated smelter bottlenecks, and the avail-
able capital. For these reasons, Chilean
copper smelters are using different tech-
nology arrangements and have different
operational goals depending on the in-
dividual smelter.
From north to south, the seven Chil-
ean smelters are Chuquicamata (Codel-
co Chuquicamata, start-up in 1952),
Altonorte (Noranda, start-up in 1993),
Potrerillos (Codelco Salvador, start-up
in 1926), Hernán Videla Lira or Paipote
(Enami, start-up in 1951), Ventanas
(Enami, start-up in 1964), Chagres (Dis-
putada, start-up in 1917, shutdown in
1945, and then restarted after 15 years of
interruption in 1960), and Caletones
(Codelco Teniente, start-up in 1922)
(Table I).
20
CHILEAN PRIMARY SMELTERS
Primary smelters are linked to a com-
pany’s mines and concentrates and are
used to process a portion of the concen-
trate. The strategic goal of primary smelt-
ers is to capture the surplus of the con-
centrate market to obtain better prices
and business with international custom
smelters. However, sometimes they also
process external concentrates. The ob-
jective of the primary smelters, repre-
sented by Codelco and Disputada in
Chile, is to maintain full capacity at low
production costs.
Codelco Smelters
Codelco has five mines in production
(Chuquicamata, Radomiro Tomic, El
Salvador, Andina, and El Teniente).
Four produce concentrates (Chuqui-
camata, Salvador, Andina, and Tenien-
te), and three have smelter facilities (Chu-
quicamata smelter, the Potrerillos
smelter at El Salvador, and the Caletones
smelter at El Teniente).
Chuquicamata
The Chuquicamata smelter is one of
the largest copper smelters in the world,
using different processes to smelt con-
centrate and clean the slag. The smelter
employs two Teniente converters (CT),
one with a tuyere and one with lances on
top, each 5 m × 21 m with a respective
capacity of 1,700 t/d and 1,000 t/d, 75%
copper in white metal. There is one
Outokumpu flash smelter furnace (FSF),
(21 m × 7.2 m, 2,300 t/d, producing a 60%
copper matte), and four Peirce-Smith
(PS) converters (4 m × 10.7 m).
Two systems are used to clean the
slag—a 4 m × 10.7 m Teniente slag clean-
ing furnace (Horno de Limpieza de Es-
coria, known as the HLE) and a slag
flotation plant (SFP). Portions of the
Chuquicamata slag and reverts are sold
to external companies (such as Minera
Tocopilla Company and Minera Cerro
Dominador Company) to be processed
by flotation.
The Chuquicamata smelter processes
only 80% of its own open pit-mine
primary concentrate. The company sells
the excess concentrate to the open mar-
ket outside the company.
Sometimes there are problems with
fluctuations in the quality of the concen-
trate, principally when there are prob-
lems with the equipment in the open pit,
because the open pit is too large, the
production needs to work with big units,
and the quality of the ore and the min-
eralogical components are different from
site to site in the mine. These factors
negatively effect the concentrate quality
and the results of the flotation plant and
the smelter working in-line.
Slag is produced with a wide range
of characteristics, including 900 t/d of
slag from an FSF with 1.8–2.5% copper
and 10–14% Fe3O4 ; 2,400 t/d from the
CT, with 6–8% copper and 18–24% Fe3O4;
and another 350 t/d of PS converter slag
with 3–5% copper and 20–25% Fe3O4.
The slag from the anode furnace is fed
back to the PS converter. PS and CT slags
are processed in the HLE in a fast reduc-
tion and settler cycle as a first step to
recovering a high portion of the white
metal and copper in these slags.
The HLE slag and the FSF slag are
treated by slag flotation after slow cool-
ing. The slag is first allowed to settle for
half an hour to one hour in the slag ladles
stationed in the PS converter aisle. The
bottom portion is recovered and charged
directly to the PS converter after pour-
ing the top part in special 50 cm deep pits
located in the cooling area. The slag ladle
is then refilled and reused as a settler.
Slow cooling of the slag is achieved in
two steps. First, 900°C is obtained by air
cooling during a period of 14–16 h. Sec-
ond, the slag is further cooled to 100°C
with spray water in 16 h. The cooled slag
is processed in the SFP, producing a
concentrate with 30% copper, which is
fed back to the smelter unit, and a slag
tailing with 0.85% copper or less. De-
pending of the actual slag-cooling op-
eration, the copper recovery in the SFP
can vary from 85% to 92%. The slag from
the PS converter is transferred to the
HLE or directly to the cooling area if
the HLE is full.
Chuquicamata is planning to install a
new pyrometallurgy slag-cleaning unit,
because the SFP is being modified for
mineral ore processing. For this pur-
pose, both the electric furnace (EF) and
the HLE processes are being evaluated
to determine the optimum process for
slag-cleaning at the smelter.
JOM • August 2000

Potrerillos
This smelter started up in 1926 in con-
junction with the Potrerillos Mine, in a
desert close to the Andean Mountains.
In the 1960s the mine closed down, and
the Potrerillos smelter continued its op-
eration based on concentrate from the El
Salvador Mine. Presently, the capacity
of the smelter exceeds the capacity of the
primary concentrator plant (44%) so the
smelter receives some concentrate from
other Codelco mines (49%) and other
local primary producers (7%).
The smelter has one reverberatory
furnace (RF) (8 m × 32 m), one CT (4 m ×
17 m), four PS converters (3.66 m ×
9.15 m), three anode furnaces (AFs) (5 m
× 9.1 m), one casting wheel, and an HLE
(4.6 m × 10 m). The RF and HLE are used
to clean the slag.
In general, Codelco Salvador has two
types of concentrates: one from normal
mineral-ore processing, the other from
reprocessing the tailings of the normal
mineral-ore flotation plant. The tailings
concentrate has a low copper grade and
high levels of SiO2 and Al2O3 , which
makes it difficult to process.
Potrerillos smelts 70% of the concen-
trate in the CT and 30% in the RF
equipped with oxygen-fuel burners. The
slag from the RF, with 0.9% copper, is
transferred directly by train pot to the
slag dump. The slag from the AF is
treated in the PS converter and then
transferred by ladles to the HLE or RF.
The CT slag is processed in the HLE,
from which a pot truck transfers the final
slag to the dump.
In the future, Potrerillos will install a
new and larger CT (5 m × 22 m) with
high oxygen enrichment to replace both
the present smaller CT and the old RF. In
addition, a new HLE will be installed to
clean the CT slag.
Caletones
Staff at this smelter are the inventors
of the HLE technology. A successful
strategy of making technological changes
to increase business has been imple-
mented, including the HLE in the mid-
1980s, the oxy-fuel burner in the early
1970s, and the CT in the mid-1970s.
Caletones smelter uses three HLE
(two that are 4.6 m × 10 m and one that is
4.6 m × 12.7 m) to clean the slag from two
CTs (5 m × 22 m) and four PS converters
(three are 4.6 m × 10.7 m and one is 4 m
× 10 m), plus one old RF (10 m × 32 m).
They have two AFs (4 m × 10.7 m) and
three fire-refining furnaces (RAFs)
(4.6 m × 10.7 m). The smelter principally
processes concentrate from its own
Teniente underground mine (85%) plus
a portion from Codelco Andina (15%).
As this smelter is installed in the An-
dean Mountains, an area with limited
space availability and a snowy and rainy
winter climate, there is not enough room
2000 August • JOM
to stock concentrate (only one-day stor-
age is available). Hence, they must proc-
ess the concentrate on-line with the con-
centrator and mine without delays.
Caletones smelts 89% of the concen-
trate in two CTs and only 11% in the old
RF, which is used principally as a settler
unit. The slags from the AF and the PS
converter and the RAF copper is trans-
ferred to the CT, and the slag from the
CT is treated in the HLE and the RF. The
final slag has 0.85% copper, which is
discarded at the slag dump.
The RF is being replaced in October
with a new HLE cleaning furnace. At
that time, 100% of the smelter slag will
be processed by HLE technology.
The HLE technology has been im-
proved steadily since its start-up. Cur-
rently, Caletones smelter is operating in
a semicontinuous mode as an interme-
diate step to increase the smelter capac-
ity (from 1,250,000 t/y to 1,600,000 t/y
of concentrate). The final plan foresees
continuous HLE slag processing with
four HLE furnaces installed. The objec-
tives are to double the capacity of the
slag-cleaning operation (from 800 t/d of
slag per HLE unit to 1,400 t/d of slag per
HLE unit) to increase recovery by a half
percent (96.7% to 97.2%) and to reduce
the solid material in the off-gas, accord-
ing to environmental regulations. To-
day, only one CT is transferring the slag
by launder directly to the HLE, resulting
in a 50% lowering of the filling time; the
other HLEs receive the CT slag by crane
ladles.
Disputada, Chagres Smelter
Chagres is located in the Aconcagua
Valley, rich and famous for its fruit pro-
duction. Because of their location, they
are a pollution-free smelter, using the
minimum space requirement for depo-
sition of the slag.
The smelter processes only 69% of the
primary concentrate of the company,
which is coming from two mines—Los
Bronces mine (clean chalcopyrite con-
centrate, 145 kt/y copper) and El Soldado
mine (bornite and chalcocite, with high
levels of SiO2 and Al2O3 , 65 kt/y copper).
The smelter operates one FSF (18 m ×
6 m, 1,760 t/d, 62% copper in matte),
three PS converters (3 m × 6.4 m), two
AFs (4 m × 7 m), and one casting wheel.
They clean the slag by means of two
HLEs (4 m × 7.9 m).
The PS converter slag, with 4–6% cop-
per, and the FSF slag, with 2.2% copper,
is processed in the HLE for slag cleaning.
The final HLE slag has 0.9% to 1.2%
copper. Sometimes, particularly when
one HLE is in general maintenance, the
smelter generates slag in excess of 1.2%
copper; this is sent to the mineral-ore
concentrator to process by milling and
flotation. Chagres has used trucks to
transport the slag to the dump since the
beginning of the 1960s.
CHILEAN CUSTOM SMELTERS
Custom smelters are dedicated to cli-
ents who require blister, anodes, or cath-
ode copper for finished copper prod-
ucts. In general, they either process pur-
chased concentrate or provide a service
in transforming the concentrate to me-
tallic copper against a charge, using the
treatment charge/refining charge fac-
tors, plus a premium for copper and
other valorizable metals. In both cases,
the recovery of the valorizable metals is
very important, which is why metal re-
covery is increased as much as possible.
In this market sector, there are two
active Chilean companies, Enami
(Empresa Nacional de Minería, a Chil-
ean state company created in the early
1960s) and Noranda, a Canadian com-
pany.
Enami has two smelters, the Hernán
Videla Lira smelter (the Paipote smelter)
in the third region, Copiapó zone, and
Las Ventanas smelter and refinery in the
fifth region, Valparaíso zone. The latter
processes all of the Enami production as
well as the excess production by other
smelter producers like El Teniente and
Chagres. Both smelters focus on the
medium- and small-scale miners as first
clients, but they have a capacity excess,
allowing them to compete successfully
for contracts from large Chilean produc-
ers like Codelco or others.
Noranda Chile, Altonorte Smelter
The Altonorte smelter is located
1,300 km north of Santiago in the middle
of the Atacama Desert. It is close to nu-
merous mines, which assists with con-
centrate supply and acid sales. It is also
25 km from the city of Antofagasta, giv-
ing the smelter access to a trained labor
pool and an excellent port facility.
The smelter was built in 1993 with
minimum investment using principally
secondhand equipment. Noranda be-
came the owner in 1998 after previously
acquiring 25% in 1995. Altonorte is now
increasing capacity and replacing old
equipment to become a highly competi-
tive custom smelter.
The smelter treats concentrates and
copper cements from various big pro-
ducers in Northern Chile, such as
Cascada, Collahuasi, El Indio, Escondi-
da, Mantos Blancos, and Zaldivar. The
smelter currently has one RF (31.9 m ×
9.6 m, 46–55% copper in matte), three
PS converters (3.96 m × 10.97 m), two
AFs (4 m × 9.1 m), and one casting wheel.
Presently, slag cleaning is performed
in the RF, which also smelts 70% of the
concentrate. Thirty percent of the feed is
treated via injection into the PS con-
verter. The slag from the converter con-
tains 3–5% copper, which is decreased to
1% in the RF. The slag is transported
from the RF to the slag-cooling pits via
locomotive trains with six, 13 t ladles. If
21
there is matte inclusion in the slag, the • Recoverable copper units from a the smelters outside of Chile. Afterwards,
slag is identified and sent to a stockpile one million tonne slag stockpile, leaching and flotation facilities were in-
for further treatment in the RF. Critical treated to ”top up” the circuit, with stalled to process all of the materials
factors in minimizing copper losses in marginal operating cost from the small Chilean miners.
the RF are good PS converter quality, • Water availability After War World II, the Paipote smelter
maintaining a lime-to-alumina ratio in • Lower emissions of volatile metal was started to process mineral concen-
the RF slag greater than one, and keep- species from the slag as compared trate with high gold and silver content.
ing the slag temperature above 1,220°C. to other slag cleaning technologies A second custom smelter and refinery at
Altonorte plans to install a slag flota- Las Ventanas was installed in the early
Enami
tion process based on the following: 1960s to produce wirebars, cathodes, sil-
• Improved copper recoveries com- Enami is a state company created to ver, and gold.
pared to other technologies process raw materials from the medium- Enami uses the same strategy for both
• Improved antimony elimination and small-scale mining sector that lacks custom smelters, using only one CT as a
from the smelter the capacity to invest in their own smelt- smelting unit, plus a PS converter, an
• Decoupling of the slag-cleaning ers, thereby obtaining the scale economy AF, and a casting wheel. Slag cleaning is
process from the smelter, thus maxi- of large capacity treatment. At the be- performed in a flexible, high-capacity
mizing primary furnace operating ginning of operation in the 1930s, EF, which has the capability to process
time Cacremi (Cajade Crédito Minero), the the excess of reverts and the oxidized
• Existence of a tailings disposal facil- mother company of Enami, only bought slag generated in the CT, the PS con-
ity in close proximity to the smelter mineral ore, which was sold directly to verter, and the AF.
Table I. Chilean Copper Slag Cleaning Systems—Comparison and Results
Primary Copper Smelters Custom Smelters
Codelco Disputada Noranda Enami
Smelter Capacity Chuquicamata Potrerillos Teniente Chagres Altonorte Paipote Ventanas
Copper Production (t/y copper) 535,000 160,000 380,000 148,000 160,000 77,000 113,000
Smelter Capacity (t/y concentrate) 1,740,000 520,000,000 1,250,000 487,000 400,000 300,000 420,000
Slag Cleaning
Final Process Units 2 HLE 1 HLE 2 & 1 HLE 2 HLE 1 SFP 1EF 1 EF
4 m × 10.7 m 4.6 m × 10 m 4.6 m × 10, 12.7 m 4 m × 7.9 m NA 9.5 m × 10 MW 10 m × 9.5 m
MW
1 SFP — — — — — —
2,500 t/d — — — — — —
Transition Process Units — 1 RF 1 RF — 1 RF 1 SF —
— 8 × 32 m 10 × 32 m — 9.6 × 31.9 m 8 × 12 m —
— — — — — 1 SFP —
— — — — — (plant available) —
Transport System truck pot train, truck train, truck truck pot train pot train pot train pot
No. of Trucks (t each) 3 (40) 1 (40) 2 (45) 1 (30) — — —
No. of Trains (No. of Ladles) — 3 (6) 2 (5) — 2 (6) 2 (5) 2 (4)
No. of Ladles (m3) 18 (11), 13 (18) 18 (2.8) 12 (6.5) 3 (14) 12 (4) 12 (4) 10 (4)
Slag Production
FSF Slag ( t/d) 830–900 — — 580 — — —
Copper (%) 1.8–2.5 — — 4.3 — — —
Fe3O4 (%) 10–14 — — 11.5 — — —
Destination SFP — — HLE — — —
CT Slag (t/d) 2,400–2,500 583 3,000 — — 630 800–900
Copper (%) 6–8 8–10 8–10 — — 7.7 7–10
Fe3O4 (%) 18–24 13–18 14–16 — — 20.7 15–17
Destination HLE RF, HLE RF, HLE — — SF EF
PS Slag (t/d) 340–360 219 190 264 340 NA 95
Copper (%) 3–5 2–4 28 3.5 4.0 NA 37.0
Fe3O4 (%) 20–25% 20–24% 0.54 22.2 18.0 NA 29.0
Destination HLE HLE, RF CT HLE RF cold dope CT
AF Slag (t/d) 150 80 110 — NA 40 20
Copper (%) 35–45 40.0 35 — 45.0 47.3 40–50
Fe3O4 (%) 5–20 15–20 38–50 — NA 17.0 12–20
Destination PS PS CT PS PS cold dope CPS
SF Slag (t/d) — — — — — 560 —
Copper (%) — — — — — 3.6 —
Fe3O4 (%) — — — — — 25.3 —
Destination — — — — — SFP —
RF Slag — 741 1,053 — 550 — —
Copper (%) — 0.9 0.91 — 1.0 — —
Fe3O4 (%) — 6–8 8.3 — 4.3 — —
Destination — slag dump slag dump — slag dump — —
Feedback Material/New Conc.
Origin HLE HLE HLE HLE RF SF EF
Matte or White Metal (%) 7.5 3.5 8.0 2.6 NA 4.2 16.9
Copper in WM returned (%) 60–75 65–71 65-68 67.0 NA 74.8 71
Revert Smelted in Slag (t/d) — — — — 150 t/d 40 150–160

22 JOM • August 2000


Paipote
The Paipote smelter is located 800 km
north of Santiago, Copiapó zone and
valley, in the middle of a large number of
small- and medium-scale mines. At
present, the Paipote smelter is operating
only one CT (3.8 m × 14 m), the smallest
in the industry, with one hot PS con-
verter. The slags from the AF (3.96 m ×
9.14 m) and the PS converter return to
the CT by charging through the CT
mouth. When Paipote stopped its RF at
the end of 1998, they transformed this
unit into a settler furnace (SF) (8 m × 12
m) heated with oxygen-fuel burners
to homogenize the slag prior to flotation
in order to take advantage of the con-
centrator’s capacity excess.
The slag produced by the SF contains
3.5% copper, which is cooled in 70 cm
deep pits. The cooling cycles comprise
24 h natural air cooling and 16 h water
cooling. The problem for Paipote is that
the flotation plant (Planta Matta) is not
prepared for slag processing, because it
was designed for mineral ore only. Ad-
ditionally, the metallic copper and white-
metal particle sizes are too small (less
than 30 µm), achieving only a 71% recov-
ery by flotation.
Next year, Paipote will operate in the
same way as the Ventanas smelter, with
only one new high-capacity EF, in order
to minimize the copper losses.
Ventanas
Ventanas is located close to the beach
in a tourist area, 150 km to the northwest
of Santiago. This represents a particular
restriction, but also an excellent incen-
tive to reduce gaseous pollution to the
air and aqueous pollution by wastewater
to the sea.
The smelter has one CT (4 m × 15 m),
three PS converters (3 m × 8 m), one EF,
three AFs (two 15 m × 5 m and one cylin-
dric furnace) and two casting wheels.
Ventanas was the first Chilean smelter
to use an EF to clean slag, taking advan-
tage of a decrease in the unit price of
electric energy from $80 per MWh in the
north or $50 per MWh in the south to
$40 or less per MWh.
The results of the Ventanas slag-clean-
ing process are very attractive, because
they are processing high magnetite slag
from the CT (18–28% Fe3O4) and highly
oxidized and metallic copper-contain-
ing slags from the PS converter and AF,

Table I. Chilean Copper Slag Cleaning Systems—Comparison and Results

Primary Copper Smelters Custom Smelters
Codelco Disputada Noranda Enami
Feedback Material/New Conc. Chuquicamata Potrerillos Teniente Chagres Altonorte Paipote Ventanas
Origin SFP SFP
% Slag Concentrate (Flotation) 6.2 — — — — 5.4 —
Copper in Concentrate Returned (%) 26–31 — — — — 31.5 —
Waste Material
RF Weight (t/d) — 510 1,053 — 550 — —
RF Copper Content (%) — 0.91 0.90 — 1.0 — —
HLE Weight (t/d) 1,500–1,600 292 2,400 844 — — —
HLE Copper Content (%) 1.5–3.0 0.90 0.80–0.85 0.90 — — —
SF&FL Weight (t/d) — — — — — 560 —
SF&FL Copper Content (%) — — — — — 0.90 —
EF Weight (t/d) — — — — — — 800–850
EF Copper Content (%) — — — — — — 0.82
SFP Weight (t/d) 2,100–2,500 — — — — 560 —
SFP Copper Content (%) 0.65–0.80 — — — — 0.90 —
Slag Flotation Plant (Copper %) — —
Feed Material 3.5 — — — — 3.6 —
Slag Concentrate 30.0 — — — — 31.5 —
Flotation Tailings 0.8 — — — — 0.9 —
Copper Recovery (%)
Total Smelter 98.3 97.0 97.1–97.2 97.3 97.0 96.0 97.5
RF Cleaning System — NA 90.0 — — —
HLE Cleaning System 87–89 95-97 91.0 NA — — —
SF&FL Cleaning System — — — — — —
EF Cleaning System — — — — — — 96.3–97.8
SFP Cleaning System 87.5 — — — — 71.0 —
Consumptions (per t slag treated)
Refractories (kg/t) 0.38 0.7 1.13 1.1 3.2 2.8 0.5
Power (kWh/t) 0.7 1.6 0.68 — NA 23 135
Heating Oil (kg/t) 1.5 incl in reduct 9.1 11.8 111.0 34.0 —
Reductant (kg/t) 10.6 8.4 5.1 5.6 — 3.0 15.0
3
Water (m /t) 3.6 — 0.0 — 0.2 1.0 —
Flotation Reagents (kg/t) 1.6 — — — — 0.07 —
Steel (mill) (kg/t) 0.25 — — — — 1.00 —
Number of Operative Workers
Total Smelter 820 416 816 310 468 508 571
RF Cleaning System — 32 69 — 37 — —
HLE Cleaning System 6 8 20 10 — — —
SF&FL Cleaning System — — — — — 24 —
EF Cleaning System — — — — — — 36
SFP Cleaning System 20 — — — — 6 —
Availability of Cleaning System (%) 333 d/y
RF — 95–98 100 97 — —
HLE 94 80–85 90 94 — — —
SF and FL — — — — — 100 —
EF — — — — — — 97
SFP 89 — — — — 75 —
NA—not available; AF—anode furnace; RAF—fire refining furnace (refino a fuego); PS—Peirce-Smith converter (convertidor Peirce Smith); RF—reverberatory furnace; CT—Teniente converter
(convertidor teniente); SF—settling furnace; EF—electric furnace; SFP—slag flotation plant; FL—flotation; FSF—Outokumpu flash smelter furnace; HLE—Teniente slag cleaning furnace (horno
de limpeza de escoria).

2000 August • JOM 23

of which the copper content is lowered
to 0.8% copper in the waste slag.
COPPER SLAG CLEANING AND
THE ENVIRONMENT
The copper-cleaning technologies
presently used include pyrometallurgi-
cal processes to reduce the slag and re-
cover the metal content by settling, gen-
erating a low-metal-containing discard
slag, or beneficiation technology subse-
quent to a slow cooling system consist-
ing of milling and flotation. Hydromet-
allurgy is not used industrially.
The selection of a flotation plant or
pyrometallurgical process is not an easy
decision, due to the local conditions that
are present and the importance of envi-
ronmental issues. Not only must current
regulation laws be considered, but also
future, more stringent environmental
rules that are expected.
The main environmental issues relate
to the difference in the characteristics of
the final-slag dump versus the final-slag
tailing pond and the eventual cost to
maintain a safe waste deposit. Consider-
ing both alternatives from a general en-
vironmental point of view, the slag dump
has some advantages as compared to a
slag tailings pond.
In both cases, the slag is dumped as a
high-temperature liquid, which is so-
lidified as a hard and stable slag rock. In
a slag dump, the slag is left indefinitely
as a hard rock soil, where little or no
disturbance occurs. In a flotation plant,
the slag eventually makes its way to a
tailings pond, where it is stored as a fine
waste material. This material can be
blown into the atmosphere if care is not
taken in managing the tailings dam.
Slags can be generally considered an
insoluble material. However, under cer-
tain conditions, leaching can occur, de-
pending on the solution characteristics
and the final composition and crystal-
line structure of the solid slag. In gen-
eral, from a chemical stability point of
view, the best slags are those that are
immediately water-quenched—a prac-
Table II. Slag Chilean Smelter Industrial Slag-Cleaning Results
Slag Cleaning* Slag Weight (t/d) Copper Fe Total
Slag Production 13,000
Flash Smelting Furnace 1,488
Teniente Converter 7,358
Peirce-Smith Converter 1,402
Anode Furnace and
Fire Refining Furnace 408
Reverberatory Furnace 2,344
Slag Cleaning 9,039
Reverberatory Furnace 2,500
Teniente Slag Cleaning 5,164
Settling Furnace 560
Electric Furnace 815
Slag Floatation
Slag Flotation Feed 2,860
Slag Tailings 2,516
Slag Concentrate 344
* Yearly average data.
24
tice incompatible with a flotation pond forced the smelter community to con-
due to the need for crystallization to sider the EF as a probable alternative.
occur. A slag dump would probably be The price per MWh was reduced 40% to
more chemically stable than a tailings 50% in the 1990s; hence, most of the
pond due to the reduced surface area Chilean smelters never installed EFs
and faster cooling. before the 1990s.
Finally, a tailings pond has less physi- All of the Chilean smelters are using
cal stability than a slag dump with re- slag ladles as an extra settler, reducing
spect to earthquakes, which is important the copper content by 0.5% or more by
in a seismically active country like Chile. returning the settled bullion to the
However, proper site selection, design, smelter. The flexibility of the slag-clean-
and operation for a tailings dam consid- ing system has high importance for the
erably lower the possibility of a failure smelter business, because the slag can be
occurring. These factors, of course, are high in magnetite, oxidized copper, or
only qualitative comparison items, as metallic copper or the droplets of sus-
the local and actual conditions of a pended metal can be too small in size,
smelter could justify a tailings pond over rendering it difficult to recover them. On
a slag dump, as in the case of Noranda the other hand, the occurrence of reverts
Altonorte, where suitable geographical is difficult to control, and occasionally
conditions prevail, or if it is possible there are problems with the volume of
to use the existing tailing pond of a pri- reverts to be returned and reprocessed,
mary flotation plant, such as in the which can change the decision about the
Chuquicamata and Paipote cases. best alternative to install. Nevertheless,
the revenues from the additional copper
SLAG-CLEANING STRATEGIES
production obtained from the final slag,
The strategy for cleaning slag depends the investment and operating costs of
on each smelter, but the price of copper the slag-cleaning technology, and the
in the global market has a high impact. company strategy are factors to be con-
Sometimes it is better to increase pro- sidered for any decision, and these are
duction instead of recovery; in other cases dependent on each particular case.
it is better to reduce the metal losses
CHILEAN SLAG-CLEANING
instead of increasing the capacity. The
TECHNOLOGIES
decision depends on each smelter’s ac-
tual situation, personnel, site proximity In general, the selection of process
to the suppliers and cities, local condi- alternatives to clean the smelter slag has
tions, environmental rules, etc., and it is depended on specific conditions present
a compromise between the metal lost when the decision was made (e.g., money
and the bottlenecks or other barriers of availability, site availability to deposit
the smelter system to increase the the waste material, the subproducts,
throughput. and the impurities). Obviously, smelt-
The location of the smelter is one of the ing technology is one of the principal
most important factors affecting strate- factors in determining the slag-cleaning
gies (e.g., the distance to suppliers, the technology, because the slag character-
environmental sensibility, the distance istics depend on it. Other issues are in-
to port, and the cost of the services and ternal bottlenecks or equipment avail-
facilities). Recovery has a differentiated ability.
impact based on whether the smelters For slag cleaning in Chile, as well as
need to purchase the concentrate (cus- for the recovery of copper from reverts
tom smelters) or are part of an integrated and ladle skulls, the RF, SF, flotation
mine-smelter chain (primary smelters). plant, HLE, and EF are used. Some smelt-
Recent energy-price changes have ers are using more than one alternative
to take advantage of old depreciated
units, increase their capacity (particu-
Chemical Analysis (%) larly primary smelters), or improve cop-
Fe3O4 SiO 2 S per recovery (particularly custom smelt-
ers). The industrial copper slag-cleaning
3.23 — 11.8 27.7 3.57 results for 1999 in Chile are shown in
7.4 39.4 18.1 26.1 2.37 Table II.
13.3 41.1 28.4 18.9 0.79
Reverberatory Furnace
40.3 28.9 11.0 11.1 0.82 This technology was the only one for
0.94 38.3 7.0 32.8 0.99 slag cleaning for a long period of time.
At present, it is being used at three Chil-
0.94 38.3 7.0 32.8 0.99
ean smelters (Altonorte, Potrerillos, and
1.23 45.0 9.5 28.2 1.57
3.05 45.3 26.2 25.1 0.65 Caletones), including roof oxygen-fuel
0.82 40.2 4.8 29.5 0.33 burners. The final slag is transferred to
the dump with 1% copper or less.
3.55 The most important features of this
0.85 technology are the high sulfur content of
30.8 the bath to use as a reducer (high FeS is
better to reduce the copper content of the
JOM • August 2000
slag to dump) and maintaining high slag
temperature using oxy-fuel burners.
Reverberatory technology is being
phased out, and all of the Chilean RFs
will be shut down in the coming years.
Settler Furnace and Flotation Plant
The keys to this technology are the
temperature of the final slag, the Fe3O4
content, and the metal droplet size.
Only the Paipote smelter is using this
method as an intermediate and non-
permanent process, since they cut the
length of the old RF to use it as a slag
settler and have idled flotation capacity
at Planta Matta, a mineral-ore flotation
plant. This alternative is only an inter-
mediate step during the erection of a
new EF, and the actual results show that
a reducer (to decrease the Fe3O4) and an
agitator (to increase the drop size) are
needed. The slag tailing from the con-
centrator is discarded to a tailing pond
with 0.9% copper or less.
For slag cleaning with this method, a
settler with oxy-fuel burners is not
enough, particularly when the Fe3O4 is
high, like in the CT and PS converter
slags, or when the droplets of metal in-
side the bath are too small, in which case
a reducer and agitation are needed.
Flotation Process
The slag flotation process is a good
alternative, but the environmental chal-
lenges could promote a change to a final
waste liquid slag for the dump instead of
a tailing slag for a pond. The keys are the
cooling procedure and the homogeniza-
tion of the slag feeds to the flotation
plant. One of the most important issues
is site availability for installing a pond to
deposit the slag tailings. It is also neces-
sary to increase the smelting capacity to
smelt the produced slag concentrate (if
not, some primary concentrate must be
replaced).
At Chuquicamata, there is a special
flotation plant to process the slag. It is a
good alternative, because of the need to
process a wide range of slags with differ-
ent characteristics (from the FSF, CT,
and PS converter), but management has
decided to install a new pyrometallurgy
technology to clean the slag, using the
flotation plant to process additional ton-
nages of mineral ore.
At Altonorte, they have decided to
process the slag by flotation, due to the
successful experience of Noranda, the
availability of an excellent tailing dis-
posal facility close to the smelter, and the
possibility to process the existing one
million tonne slag stockpile.
HLE
The HLE process was invested, devel-
oped, and commercialized by the Ten-
iente staff at the Caletones smelter in the
middle of the 1980s.
This process uses a horizontal cylin-
2000 August • JOM
drical vessel as a furnace to clean the
slag, similar to a PS converter or an
anode furnace. The vessel receives
batchwise slags with high copper and
magnetite (Fe3O4) levels. In the first step
of the cleaning cycle, the Fe3O4 level is
reduced by injecting coal, oil, or natural
gas through tuyeres into the bath (like in
the copper fire-refining reducing step)
to 6–7%. Thereby, the viscosity of the
slag is decreased. In the second step, the
injection is discontinued, and the copper
is allowed to settle from the bath, obtain-
ing a matte phase and a cleaned slag.
Currently, the batch process is being
converted to a continuous process, with
distinct advantages as compared to the
original batch process, such as an in-
crease in throughput capacity and a de-
crease of the residual copper level in the
discard slag. The HLE is a good alterna-
tive to reduce the Fe3O4—Teniente con-
siders about 5% the best level of Fe3O4—
and clean the copper from the slag to less
than 1% copper, especially when some
vessels are shut down and transformed
into HLE.
It is possible to use only one HLE to
clean all of the slag from one CT in a
continuous or semicontinuous process,
linking both furnaces on-line. The re-
sulting final slag has 0.95% copper or
less in a batch way, and 0.85% copper or
less by semicontinuous or continuous
processing. This upgrade is being
planned by Caletones and Potrerillos
for their next expansion planning.
Electric Furnace
The EF is the last technology that the
Chilean copper smelters installed, and
Ventanas was the first, pushed by an
energy price reduction of 40% to 50%.
This technology could be one of the most
attractive, because of its flexibility in
reducing the Fe3O4 to 5% or less, reduc-
ing the oxidized copper, and recovering
the small droplets of metal in bath.
With this equipment, flexibility is pro-
vided not only to process a wide range of
slag qualities, but also to reduce any
reverts problem. The keys are the fur-
nace potential to reduce the Fe3 O4 to less
than 5% and increase the bath tempera-
ture as well as the agitation produced by
the energy sent through the slag bath
between the electrodes, increasing the
metal size drop.
Enami was successful in using the EF
at the Ventanas smelter and is installing
a new EF at the Paipote smelter.
In general, the EF is a good way to
clean the slag and provides additional
flexibility to smelt reverts. The flexibility
of increased smelter capacity pushes the
decision to use this alternative, but low-
priced electric power is a prerequisite.
Slag Ladles as an Extra Settler
This is a general way to reduce the
copper content in the waste slag to dump.
The key is to use big ladles to maintain
the temperature of the slag in the ladle
and recover the enriched part at the bot-
tom or in the skulls to reprocess it.
Other Alternatives
The Chilean smelters are studying
other alternatives to improve slag clean-
ing processes, like the Mitsubishi con-
cept using a low EF with Fe-Si alloy, the
Isa or Ausmelt concepts to reduce and
agitate the slag before settling, the leach-
ing of the old slag dumps, and alterna-
tives such as magnetic separation. These
are only in the R&D stage of develop-
ment or incipient testing.
CONCLUSIONS
All decisions in new investment or
operational strategies depend on the ac-
tual local conditions, experience, and
parameters of each smelter, the economic
and risk analysis, and the company strat-
egy that must be followed. On this basis,
it is possible to decide which alternative
is the best for each smelter case.
The Chilean experience finds that the
most important key for recovering cop-
per in the slag-cleaning system is to ob-
tain a fluid slag with low magnetite con-
tent, without metallic copper, and agi-
tate the slag to increase the size of the
metal droplets. Obviously, it is advanta-
geous when a primary slag can be ob-
tained with these characteristics or close
of them.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors express their gratitude to
JOM for the opportunity to publish this
article, outlining the experience of the Chil-
ean copper smelters in copper slag cleaning
to the benefit of the international copper
smelting community.
Sergio Demetrio is general manager of Smeltec S.A. Jorge
Ahumada is manager of the Chuquicamata smelter,
Codelco. Miguel Ángel Durán is manager of the Chagres
smelter, Disputada. Ernest Mast is technical manager of
the Altonorte smelter, Noranda. Ulises Rojas is manager
of the Caletones smelter, Codelco. José Sanhueza is man-
ager of the Paipote smelter, Enami. Pedro Reyes is man-
ager of the Potrerillos smelter, Codelco. Edmundo Mo-
rales is manager of the Ventanas smelter and refinery,
Enami.
For more information, contact S. Demetrio, Cerro
San Ramán 1491, Las Condes, Santiago-Chile;
telephone 56-2-2145006; fax 56-2-2142358; e-
mail smeltec@netline.cl.
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