Simulation Study and Industrial Application of Enhanced Arsenic Removal by Regulating the Proportion of Concentrates in the SKS Copper Smelting Process

Arsenic removal is a crucial issue in all copper smelters. Based on the Fangyuan 1# smelter, the effects of major elements (Cu, Fe and S) in sulfide concentrates on arsenic removal in the SKS copper smelting process were studied in this paper. The results show that Cu, Fe and S in concentrates have a significant influence on the oxygen/sulfur potential of smelting systems, and also affect the efficiency of arsenic removal. By regulating the proportion of the major elements in sulfide concentrates, the concentrate composition was changed from its original proportions (Cu 24.4%, Fe 26.8%, S 28.7%, and other 20%) to optimized proportions (Cu 19%, Fe 32%, S 29%, and other 20%). The distribution of arsenic among three phases in the original production process (gas 82.01%, slag 12.08%, matte 5.91%) was improved to obtain an optimal result (gas 94.37%, slag 3.45%, matte 2.18%). More arsenic was removed into the gas phase, and the mass fraction of arsenic in matte was reduced from 0.07% to 0.02%. The findings were applied to actual production processes in several other copper smelters, such as the Hengbang copper smelter, Yuguang smelter and Fangyuan 2# smelter. Therefore, the optimized result obtained in this work could provide direct guidance for actual production.