China Nonferrous Metallurgy

The increasingly high impurity content in raw materials for copper smelting has resulted in more than more impurities contained in copper anode plates. The conventional electrolytic technology for treating high-impurity anode plates has problems of low yield rate of Grade-A copper, low production capacity and high energy consumption, etc. Although the ultra-high current density electrolysis technology developed in recent years has basically solved the problems in the electrorefining of high-impurity anode plates, it’s still trapped by the liable blockage of electrolyte feeding device, high cell voltage and DC power consumption, among other problems. Based on the existing high current density electrolysis technology, Xiangguang Copper Co., Ltd has made innovative modification to the electrolysis device, electrolyte circulation system and electrolyte filtration system, updated and optimized the technology in actual practice, developed standard operating procedures and finally realized the ideal production goals, i.e., stable operation at the current density of 420~580A/m², Grade-A copper yield rate of 100%, spent anode ratio of less than 13%, and standard coal consumption of 51.91kg per ton of copper.