Sustainable Mining and Metallurgy

In this paper, the functions of main elements and compositions of the concentrate fed for ISA copper smelting were studied; based on production practice, a comparison was made between two blending modes for their influence on ISA copper smelting, so as to find a more suitable and favorable blending mode for ISA copper smelting. The two modes are respectively as blending with sulfide ore only and blending with sulfide ore and oxide ore. The comparison results show that adding a proper proportion of copper oxide ore in copper sulfide concentrate can make the Fe, S and SiO₂ content in the feed closer to the production process requirements and result in lower consumption of auxiliaries, increased smelting and converting efficiency, improved production capacity and process balance rate, reduced heat energy waste in smelting and reduced energy consumption.