Summary
Economic, regulatory, and sociological factors have spurred the search for a copper production technology capable of providing high-purity copper from a variety of sources with low-unit capital, energy, and labor costs while meeting increasingly stringent ecological requirements. Nitrile copper-refining chemistry can be combined with other production operations to address these needs. Roasting concentrates results in a leachable calcine and SO2 gas which is absorbed to make a sulfite liquor and a cleaned gas. The sulfite liquor and calcine leach liquor are mixed to yield precipitated copper sulfite. The sulfur is removed as gypsum. A cupricl acetonitrile liquor converts the solid copper sulfite to a cuprous/ nitrile liquor which is disproportionated to produce the recycled cupric/ acetonitrile liquor and a pure-copper metal product. The roast/ leach/sulfite/ nitrile copper concentrate process is estimated to require 55% less energy and 30% less capital than modern pyrometallurgical methods.
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Foster, E.P., Taschler, D.R. & Lowe, D.F. Nitrile Metallurgical Process for Copper Concentrates. JOM 31, 23–28 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03354532
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03354532