Abstract
Aurubis, with its complex integrated smelter network, is treating various primary and secondary raw materials originating mainly from mining and recycling to recover 19 different metals such as Cu, Au, Ag, Ni, Sn, Zn, Pb, Se and PGMs. Within these processes intermediates are produced which are further refined to recover pure metals or metal compounds. One of these intermediates is Cu-Pb-matte which is converted in a Top Blown Rotary Converter (TRBC) to obtain blister copper. Due to the limited public information on optimization of this process intensive internal research and optimization work has been performed in the past years starting from process modelling work up to industrial scale test work.
This paper will provide an overview about the characteristics and complexities of Cu-Pb mattes to highlight the challenges of handling these materials. Moreover, ways to optimize melting and converting Cu-Pb-matte to blister copper are elaborated. The core interest was on understanding and optimization of slag chemistry, lance performance and endpoint detection.