ISASMELT

The ISASMELT process is an energy-

efficient smelting process that was jointly
developed from the 1970s to the 1990s by
Mount Isa Mines (a subsidiary of MIM
Holdings and now part of Glencore) and
the Government of Australia’s CSIRO. It has
relatively low capital and operating costs
for a smelting process.
The installed feed capacity of Isasmelt furnaces has grown as the technology has been accepted in smelters around the
world. Graph courtesy of Xstrata Technology.

ISASMELT technology has been applied to

lead, copper, and nickel smelting. As of
2021, 22 plants were in operation in eleven
countries, along with three demonstration
plants located at Mt Isa. The installed
capacity of copper/nickel operating plants
in 2020 was 9.76 million tonnes per year of
feed materials and 750 thousand tonnes
per year across lead operating plants.[1]

Smelters based on the copper ISASMELT

process are among the lowest-cost
copper smelters in the world.[2]
The ISASMELT furnace
An ISASMELT furnace is an upright-
cylindrical shaped steel vessel that is lined
with refractory bricks.[3] There is a molten
bath of slag, matte or metal (depending on
the application) at the bottom of the
furnace. A steel lance is lowered into the
bath through a hole in the roof of the
furnace, and air or oxygen-enriched air that
is injected through the lance into the bath
causes vigorous agitation of the bath.
Cut-away view of an Isasmelt furnace. Image courtesy of Xstrata Technology.

Mineral concentrates or materials for

recycling are dropped into the bath through
another hole in the furnace roof or, in some
cases, injected down the lance. These
feed materials react with the oxygen in the
injected gas, resulting in an intensive
reaction in a small volume (relative to
other smelting technologies).

ISASMELT lances contain one or more

devices called "swirlers" that cause the
injected gas to spin within the lance,
forcing it against the lance wall, cooling it.
The swirler consists of curved vanes
around a central pipe forming an annular
flow. [4] They are designed to minimize
pressure losses changing the angle from
axial to tangential thus creating a strong
vortex.[5] The vortex helps mix liquids and
solids with oxygen in the bath.[6] The
cooling effect results in a layer of slag
"freezing" on the outside of the lance. This
layer of solid slag protects the lance from
the high temperatures inside the furnace.
The tip of the lance that is submerged in
the bath eventually wears out, and the
worn lance is easily replaced with a new
one when necessary. The worn tips are
subsequently cut off and a new tip welded
onto the lance body before it is returned to
the furnace.

ISASMELT furnaces typically operate in the

range of 1000–1200 °C, depending on the
application.[3][7] The refractory bricks that
form the internal lining of the furnace
protect the steel shell from the heat inside
the furnace.
The products are removed from the
furnace through one or more "tap holes" in
a process called "tapping". This can be
either continuous removal or in batches,
with the tap holes being blocked with clay
at the end of a tap, and then reopened by
drilling or with a thermic lance when it is
time for the next tap.

The products are allowed to separate in a

settling vessel, such as a rotary holding
furnace or an electric furnace.

While smelting sulfide concentrates, most

of the energy needed to heat and melt the
feed materials is derived from the reaction
of oxygen with the sulfur and iron in the
concentrate. However, a small amount of
supplemental energy is required.
ISASMELT furnaces can use a variety of
fuels, including coal, coke, petroleum coke,
oil and natural gas. The solid fuel can be
added through the top of the furnace with
the other feed materials, or it can be
injected down the lance. Liquid and
gaseous fuels are injected down the lance.

Advantages of the ISASMELT

process
An IS AS MELT furnace is typically fed with damp concentrate falling from a conveyor belt into the furnace. Image courtesy
of Xstrata Technology.

The advantages of the ISASMELT process

include:

High productivity with a small footprint:

Glencore's copper smelter in Mount Isa
treats over 1 million t/y of copper
concentrate through a single furnace
3.75 m in diameter.[3] The small footprint
makes the process well suited to
retrofitting to existing smelters where
there are significant space
constraints[8][9]
Simple operation: the ISASMELT furnace
does not require extensive feed
preparation as the feed can be
discharged from a belt conveyor directly
into the furnace[10]
high energy efficiency: installing an
ISASMELT furnace in the Mount Isa
copper smelter reduced energy
consumption by over 80% (through
better use of the inherent energy
contained in the sulfide concentrate)
compared with the roaster and
reverberatory furnaces previously used
there[2]
Flexibility in feed types: ISASMELT
furnaces have been used to smelt
copper, lead and nickel concentrates
with a wide range of compositions,[11]
including high levels of magnetite,[10]
and secondary materials, such as
copper scrap and lead-acid battery
paste[12]
Flexibility in fuel types: ISASMELT
furnaces can operate with a variety of
fuels, including lump coal of varying
ranks, coke (lump or fine), petroleum
coke, oil (including recycled oil), natural
gas, and liquid petroleum gas,
depending on which is the most
economic at the smelter's location[3]
High turn-down ratio: the feed rate to a
single ISASMELT installation can easily
be scaled up or down, depending on the
availability of concentrate and the needs
of the smelter
Low feed carry over: ISASMELT furnaces
typically lose about 1% of the feed as
carry-over with the waste gas, meaning
that there is less material that needs to
be returned to the furnace for
retreatment[3]
Effective containment of fugitive
emissions: because the furnace has only
two openings at the top, any fugitive
emissions can easily be captured[10]
High elimination of deleterious minor
elements: due to the flushing action of
the gases injected into the ISASMELT
furnace slags, copper ISASMELT
furnaces have a high elimination of
minor elements, such as bismuth and
arsenic, that can have deleterious
effects on the properties of the product
copper[13]
High sulfur dioxide concentration in the
waste gas: the use of oxygen
enrichment gives the ISASMELT plants
high sulfur dioxide concentrations in the
waste gas stream, making acid plants
cheaper to build and operate
Relatively low operating cost: the energy
efficiency of the process, the simple
feed preparation, the relative lack of
moving parts, low feed carry-over rates,
low labour requirements and the ease of
replacing lances and refractory linings
when they are worn give the ISASMELT
process relatively low operating
costs[10]
Relatively low capital cost: the simplicity
of the construction of the ISASMELT
furnaces and the ability to treat
concentrate without drying make it
cheaper than other smelting
processes.[10][14]
History of the process

Early developmental work (1973–

1980)

The history of the ISASMELT process

began with the invention in 1973 of the
Sirosmelt lance by Drs Bill Denholm and
John Floyd at the CSIRO.[15][16] The lance
was developed as a result of
investigations into improved tin-smelting
processes, in which it was found that the
use of a top-entry submerged lance would
result in greater heat transfer and mass
transfer efficiencies.[16]
The idea of top-entry submerged lances
goes back to at least 1902, when such a
system was attempted in Clichy, France.[17]
However, early attempts failed because of
the short lives of the lances on
submersion in the bath. The Mitsubishi
copper smelting process is one alternative
approach, wherein lances are used in a
furnace, but they are not submerged into
the bath. Instead, they blow oxygen-
enriched air onto the surface of the slag
(top jetting).[18] Similarly, a water-cooled,
top-jetting lance was the basis of the LD
(Linz-Donawitz) steelmaking process. This
does not produce the same intensity of
mixing in the bath as a submerged
lance.[16]

The CSIRO scientists first tried developing

a submerged lance system using a water-
cooled lance system, but moved to an air-
cooled system because "scale up of the
water-cooled lance would have been
problematic".[16] Introducing any water to a
system involving molten metals and slags
can result in catastrophic explosions, such
as that in the Scunthorpe Steelworks in
November 1975 in which 11 men lost their
lives.[19]
The inclusion of the swirlers in the
Sirosmelt lance and forming a splash
coating of slag on the lance were the
major innovations that led to the
successful development of submerged
lance smelting.

From 1973, the CSIRO scientists began a

series of trials using the Sirosmelt lance to
recover metals from industrial slags in
Australia, including lead softener slag at
the Broken Hill Associated Smelters in Port
Pirie (1973), tin slag from Associated Tin
Smelters in Sydney (1974), copper
converter slag at the Electrolytic Refining
and Smelting ("ER&S") Port Kembla plant
(1975) and copper anode furnace slag at
Copper Refineries Limited (another
subsidiary of MIM Holdings) in Townsville
(1976) and of copper converter slag in
Mount Isa (1977).[16] The work then
proceeded to smelting tin concentrates
(1975) and then sulfidic tin concentrates
(1977).[16]

MIM and ER&S jointly funded the 1975

Port Kembla converter slag treatment
trials and MIM’s involvement continued
with the slag treatment work in Townsville
and Mount Isa.[20]
In parallel with the copper slag treatment
work, the CSIRO was continuing to work in
tin smelting. Projects included a five tonne
("t") plant for recovering tin from slag being
installed at Associated Tin Smelters in
1978, and the first sulfidic smelting test
work being done in collaboration with
Aberfoyle Limited, in which tin was fumed
from pyritic tin ore and from mixed tin and
copper concentrates.[21] Aberfoyle was
investigating the possibility of using the
Sirosmelt lance approach to improve the
recovery of tin from complex ores, such as
its mine at Cleveland, Tasmania, and the
Queen Hill ore zone near Zeehan in
Tasmania.[22][23]
The Aberfoyle work led to the construction
and operation in late 1980 of a four t/h tin
matte fuming pilot plant at the Western
Mining Corporation’s Kalgoorlie Nickel
Smelter, located to the south of Kalgoorlie,
Western Australia.[23]

Lead ISASMELT development

Small-scale work (1978–1983)

In the early 1970s, the traditional blast

furnace and sinter plant technology that
was the mainstay of the lead smelting
industry was coming under sustained
pressure from more stringent
environmental requirements, increased
energy costs, decreasing metal prices and
rising capital and operating costs.[15]

Many smelting companies were seeking

new processes to replace sinter plants and
blast furnaces. Possibilities included the
QSL lead smelting process, the Kivcet
process, the Kaldo top-blown rotary
converter, and adapting Outokumpu’s
successful copper and nickel flash furnace
to lead smelting.[24]

MIM was seeking ways to safeguard the

future of its Mount Isa lead smelting
operations. It did this in two ways:
 1. working to improve the environmental
and operational performance of its
existing operations
2. investigating new technologies.[15]

MIM investigated new technologies by

arranging plant testing of large parcels of
Mount Isa lead concentrates for all the
then process options except for the Kivcet
process. At the same time, it had been
aware of the use of top-jetting lances in
the Mitsubishi and Kaldo processes, and
of top-entry submerged combustion lance
investigations undertaken by Asarco
(which had a long association with MIM,
including being a shareholder in MIM
Holdings) in the 1960s. This stimulated
MIM’s interest in the Sirosmelt lance, which
was seen as a way to produce a robust
submerged lance.[15]

Following the copper slag trials of 1976–

1978, MIM initiated a joint project with the
CSIRO in 1978 to investigate the possibility
of applying Sirosmelt lances to lead
smelting.[7]

The work began with computer modelling

the equilibrium thermodynamics (1978)
and was followed by laboratory bench-
scale test work using large alumina
silicate crucibles (1978–1979). The results
were sufficiently encouraging that MIM
built a 120 kg/h test rig in Mount Isa. It
began operation in September 1980. This
was used to develop a two-stage process
to produce lead bullion from Mount Isa
lead concentrate. The first stage was an
oxidation step that removed virtually all
the sulfur from the feed, oxidising the
contained lead to lead oxide (PbO) that
was largely collected in the slag (some
was carried out of the furnace as lead
oxide fume that was returned for lead
recovery). The second stage was a
reduction step in which the oxygen was
removed from the lead to form lead
metal.[7]
The lead ISASMELT pilot plant (1983–
1990)

Following the 120 kg/h test work, MIM

decided to proceed to install a 5 t/h lead
ISASMELT pilot plant in its Mount Isa lead
smelter. It bought Aberfoyle’s matte
fuming furnace and transported it from
Kalgoorlie to Mount Isa, where it was
rebuilt and commissioned in 1983[16] to
demonstrate the first stage of the process
in continuous operation and for testing the
reduction step using batches of high-lead
slag.[25]

One of the key features of the pilot plant

was that it was run by operations’
personnel in the lead smelter as though it
was an operations’ plant.[15] The high lead
slag produced by the continuous smelting
of the lead concentrate was subsequently
treated in the sinter plant, thus increasing
the production of the lead smelter by up to
17%.[26] This gave the operations’ people
ownership of the plant and an incentive to
make it work, thus ensuring management
and maintenance priority. It also gave MIM
assurance that the process simple enough
to be operable in a production
environment, with normal staff and
supervision, and that it was robust enough
to withstand normal control excursions.[15]
In addition to the continuous operation of
lead concentrate to produce high-lead
slag, the pilot plant was used to produce
lead metal from batches of the slag,[25]
investigate the wear rates of the furnace’s
refractory lining and lances, and initial
work aimed at developing a low-pressure
version of the Sirosmelt lance. The result
was a lance design that allowed operation
at significantly lower pressure than the
initial values of about 250 kilopascal
(gauge) ("kPag"), thus reducing operating
costs.[7]

MIM built a second, identical furnace next

to the first, and commissioned it in August
1985. This combination of furnaces was
used to demonstrate the two-stage
process in continuous operation in mid-
1987.[25] However, for most of the time the
two furnaces were not able to operate
simultaneously due to a constraint in the
capacity of the baghouse used to filter the
lead dust from the waste gas.[25]

A series of process improvements,

particularly in the waste gas handling
system, resulted in increasing the
throughput of the plant from the initial
design of 5 t/h to 10 t/h.[10] The pilot plant
had treated more than 125,000 t of lead
concentrate by April 1989.[12]
The two furnaces were also used to
develop a process to recover lead from the
Mount Isa lead smelter’s drossing
operations.[25]

The lead ISASMELT demonstration plant

(1991–1995)

Based on the results of the pilot plant

work, the MIM Holdings Board of Directors
approved the construction of an A$65
million[27] demonstration plant, capable of
producing 60,000 t/y of lead bullion.[25]
This plant operated from early 1991 until
1995.[28] It was initially designed to treat
20 t/h of lead concentrate using lance air
enriched to 27%. However, the oxygen
originally designated for its use was
diverted to the more profitable copper
smelting operations, and the feed rate to
the lead ISASMELT demonstration plant
was severely restricted.[28] When there
was sufficient oxygen available in 1993 to
increase the enrichment level to 33–35%,
treatment rates of up to 36 t/h of
concentrate were achieved, with residual
lead in the final reduction furnace slag
being in the range of 2–5%.[28]

The two-stage approach to ISASMELT lead

smelting was partly driven by the relatively
low lead content of Mount Isa lead
concentrates (typically in the range of 47–
52% lead during the lead ISASMELT
development period).[7][29][30] Trying to
produce lead bullion in a single furnace
with such low concentrate grades would
result in excessive fuming of lead oxide
with a huge amount of material that would
have to be returned to the furnace to
recover the lead[7] and, consequently, a
higher energy demand as that material had
to be reheated to the furnace
temperatures.

Concentrates with higher lead contents

can be smelted directly into lead metal in a
single furnace without excess fuming.[7]
This was demonstrated on the large scale
in 1994, when 4000 t of concentrate
containing 67% lead were treated at rates
up to 32 t/h with lance air enriched to 27%.
During these trials, 50% of the lead in the
concentrate was converted to lead bullion
in the smelting furnace, while most of the
rest ended up as lead oxide in the smelting
furnace slag.[28]

Like the lead ISASMELT pilot plant, the lead

ISASMELT demonstration plant suffered
from constraints imposed by the waste
gas handling system. In the case of the
demonstration plant, the problem was
caused by sticky fume that formed an
insulating layer on the convection tube
bundles of the waste heat boilers,
significantly reducing the heat transfer
rates and thus the ability of the boilers to
reduce the waste gas temperature.[12] As
the plant used baghouses to filter lead
fume from the waste gas, it was necessary
to reduce the temperature of the gas
below the point at which the bags would
be damaged by high temperatures. The
problem was solved by allowing cool air to
mix with the hot waste gas to lower the
temperature to a level at which the
baghouse could operate.[12] This reduced
the ISASMELT plant’s capacity because it
was again limited by the volume of gas
that could be filtered by the baghouse.
The lead ISASMELT demonstration plant
was mothballed in 1995 because there
was insufficient concentrate to keep both it
and the rest of the lead smelter
operating.[12] It was too small to treat all
the Mount Isa lead concentrate by itself.

Commercial primary-lead ISASMELT

plants (2005– )

The first commercial primary-lead

ISASMELT furnace was installed at the
Yunnan Chihong Zinc and Germanium
Company Limited (YCZG) greenfield zinc
and lead smelting complex at Qujing in
Yunnan Province in China.[31] This furnace
was part of a plant consisting of the
ISASMELT furnace and a blast furnace
specially designed to treat high-lead
ISASMELT slag.[28] The ISASMELT furnace
was designed to produce both the slag
and lead bullion, with about 40% of the
lead in the concentrate being converted to
lead bullion in the ISASMELT furnace.[31]

The ISASMELT–blast furnace combination

was designed to treat 160,000 t/y of lead
concentrate.[1]

The second commercial primary-lead

ISASMELT furnace was commissioned at
Kazzinc’s smelting complex at Ust-
Kamenogorsk in Kazakhstan in 2012. It is
designed to treat 300,000 t/y of lead
concentrate, again using an ISASMELT–
blast furnace combination.[1]

YCZG is constructing another lead

ISASMELT at a new greenfield smelter in
Huize in China, and this is due to be
commissioned in 2013.[1]

In June 2017, Glencore announced that

Nyrstar NV had acquired an Isasmelt
licence for its new Ausmelt furnace in Port
Pirie. As part of the agreement, Nyrstar
engaged training and ramp-up support
services for the Ausmelt furnace and blast
furnace by personnel from Glencore's
Kazzinc operations in Kazakhstan. This
involved training Nyrstar personnel at Ust-
Kamenogorsk operations and site support
by Kazzinc personnel during the
commissioning and ramp-up stages of the
Ausmelt plant.[32]

Secondary-lead smelting (1982– )

While the lead ISASMELT 5 t/h pilot plant

was being designed in 1982–1983, MIM
continued to use the 120 kg/h test rig to
develop other processes, including the
dross treatment process previously
mentioned, and the treatment of lead-acid
battery paste for lead recycling.[7]
The MIM Holdings Board of Directors
approved the construction of an ISASMELT
plant at Britannia Refined Metals, the
company’s lead refinery at Northfleet in the
United Kingdom, for commercial recovery
of lead from battery paste to supplement
the existing plant, which used a short
rotary furnace to produce 10,000 t/y of
lead.[33] The new plant increased annual
production to 30,000 t/y of recycled lead,
and was commissioned in 1991.[33] The
ISASMELT furnace was used to produce
low-antimony lead bullion from the battery
paste and an antimony-rich slag that
contained 55–65% lead oxide. While it was
possible to recover the lead from the slag
in the ISASMELT furnace by a reduction
step, the total throughput of the plant was
increased by treating the slag in the short
rotary furnace when sufficient quantities of
the slag had been generated.[33] The plant
was designed to treat 7.7 t/h of battery
paste, but routinely treated 12 t/h.[33] The
plant was shut down in 2004 when Xstrata
Zinc, which took over the MIM Holdings
lead operations, decided to leave the lead
recycling business.[33]

A second lead ISASMELT plant for

recovering lead from recycled batteries
was commissioned in 2000 in Malaysia at
Metal Reclamation Industries’ Pulau Indah
plant.[33] This ISASMELT plant has a design
capacity of 40,000 t/y of lead bullion.[1]

Copper ISASMELT development

Small-scale test work (1979–1987)

Scientists at the CSIRO conducted small-

scale test work on copper sulfide
concentrate in 1979,[16] using the CSIRO’s
50 kg Sirosmelt test rig.[34] These trials
included producing copper matte
containing 40–52% copper and, in some
cases, converting the matte to produce
blister copper.[34]
The results of this work were sufficiently
encouraging that MIM in 1983[35]
undertook its own copper smelting test
work program using its 120 kg/h test rig,
which had by then been rerated to
250 kg/h.[27] It was found that the process
was easy to control and that copper loss
to slag was low.[10] It was also learned
that the process could easily recover
copper from copper converter slag
concentrate, of which there was a large
stockpile at Mount Isa.[10]
The copper ISASMELT demonstration
plant (1987–1992)

Construction of a 15 t/h demonstration

copper ISASMELT plant began in 1986. The
design was based on MIM’s 250 kg/h test
work and operating experience with the
lead ISASMELT pilot plant.[27] It cost A$11
million[10] and was commissioned in April
1987.[27] The initial capital cost was
recovered in the first 14 months of
operation.[26]

As with the lead ISASMELT pilot plant, the

copper ISASMELT demonstration plant
was integrated into copper smelter
operations[15] and justified by the 20%
(30,000 t/y) increase in copper production
that it provided.[10] It quickly treated the
entire backlog of converter slag
concentrate, which could not be treated at
high rates in the reverberatory furnaces
without generating magnetite ("Fe3O4")
accretions that would necessitate shutting
down the reverberatory furnaces for their
removal.[36]

The demonstration copper ISASMELT plant

was used to further develop the copper
process. Refractory life was initially
shorter than expected[37] and considerable
effort was devoted to understanding the
reasons and attempting to extend the life
of the refractories.[37] At the end of the life
of the demonstration plant, the longest
refractory life achieved was 90 weeks.[37]

Lance life was also low initially.[37]

Inexperienced operators could destroy a
lance in as little as 10 minutes.[37]
However, as a result of modifications to
the lance design, the development of
techniques to determine the position of the
lance in the bath, and a rise in the
operating experience, the typically lance
life was extended to a week.[37]

The demonstration plant was

commissioned with high-pressure (700
kPag) air injected down the lance.[27] Later,
after extensive testing of low-pressure
lance designs and trials using oxygen
enrichment of the lance air, a 70 t/d
oxygen plant and a 5 Nm3/s blower with a
discharge pressure of 146 kPag were
purchased.[27] The new lance design was
capable of operating at pressures below
100 kPag.[35] Using enrichment of the
oxygen in the lance air to 35%, the
demonstration plant throughput was lifted
to 48 t/h of concentrate, and the gross
energy used during smelting was reduced
from 25.6 GJ/t of contained copper to 4.1
GJ/t.[27]
Commercial primary-copper ISASMELT
plants (1990– )

The successful operation and

development of the demonstration copper
ISASMELT, and the degree of interest
shown in the new process by the global
smelting community, gave MIM Holdings
sufficient confidence to license the
ISASMELT technology to external
companies,[38] so an agreement under
which MIM could incorporate the Sirosmelt
lance into ISASMELT technology was
signed with the CSIRO in 1989.[26]
AGIP Australia

MIM signed the first ISASMELT licence

agreement with Agip Australia Proprietary
Limited ("Agip") in July 1990. Agip, a
subsidiary of the Italian oil company ENI,
was developing the Radio Hill nickel-
copper deposit near Karratha in Western
Australia.[26] MIM and representatives of
Agip conducted a series of trials in which 4
tonnes of Radio Hill concentrate was
smelted in the 250 kg/h test rig at Mount
Isa.[26]

The Agip ISASMELT plant was designed to

treat 7.5 t/h of the Radio Hill concentrate
and produce 1.5 t/h of granulated matte
with a combined nickel and copper content
of 45% for sale.,[26][27] It was the same size
as the copper ISASMELT demonstration
plant (2.3 m internal diameter) and had a
5.5 Nm3/s blower to provide the lance
air.[26] Commissioning of the plant began in
September 1991;[12] however, the Radio Hill
mine and smelter complex were forced to
close by low nickel prices after less than
six months,[12] before commissioning was
completed.[27] The ISASMELT furnace
achieved its design capacity within three
months.[12] Subsequent owners of the
mine focussed on mining and mineral
processing only, and the ISASMELT plant
has been dismantled.[12]

Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold

In 1973, the Freeport-McMoRan Copper

and Gold ("Freeport") smelter at Miami,
Arizona, installed a 51 MW electric furnace
at its Miami smelter. The decision was
based on a long-term electrical power
contract with the Salt River Project that
provided the company with a very low rate
for electricity.[8] This contract expired in
1990 and the resulting increase in
electricity prices prompted the then
owners of the smelter, Cyprus Miami
Mining Corporation ("Cyprus"), to seek
alternative smelting technologies to
provide lower operating costs.[8]

The technologies evaluated included the:

Contop flame cyclone reactor

Inco flash furnace
ISASMELT
Mitsubishi furnace
Noranda reactor
Outokumpu flash furnace
Teniente furnace.[8]

The Contop, Inco, Mitsubishi and

Outokumpu processes "were all eliminated
primarily because of their high dust levels,
high capital costs and poor adaptability to
the existing facility". The Teniente
converter was ruled out because it
required the use of the electric furnace for
partial smelting. The Noranda reactor was
not selected "because of its high refractory
wear and its poor adaptability to the
existing plant due to the handling of the
reactor slag".[8] ISASMELT was chosen as
the preferred technology and a licence
agreement was signed with MIM in
October 1990. The major factor in the
decision to select the ISASMELT
technology was the ability to fit it into the
existing plant and to maximise the use of
existing equipment and infrastructure,
while the major disadvantage was seen to
be the risks associated with scaling up the
technology from the Mount Isa
demonstration plant.[8]

The Miami copper ISASMELT furnace was

designed to treat 590,000 t/y (650,000
short tons per year) of copper concentrate,
a treatment rate that was constrained by
the capacity of the sulfuric acid plant used
to capture the sulfur dioxide from the
smelter’s waste gases.[8] The existing
electric furnace was converted from
smelting duties to a slag cleaning furnace
and providing matte surge capacity for the
converters.[8] The ISASMELT furnace was
commissioned on 11 June 1992 and in
2002 treated over 700,000 t/y of
concentrate.[39] The modernisation of the
Miami smelter cost an estimated US$95
million.[27]

In 1993, the Cyprus Minerals Company

merged with AMAX to form the Cyprus
Amax Minerals company, which was in turn
taken over by the Phelps Dodge
Corporation in late 1999. After the take-
over, Phelps Dodge closed its Hidalgo and
Chino smelters.[40] Phelps Dodge was
acquired by Freeport in 2006.
The Miami smelter is one of only two
remaining operating copper smelters in the
United States, where there were 16 in
1979.[41]

Mount Isa Mines

The third commercial copper ISASMELT

plant was installed in MIM’s Mount Isa
copper smelter at a cost of approximately
A$100 million.[37] It was designed to treat
104 t/h of copper concentrate, containing
180,000 t/y of copper, and it began
operation in August 1992.[37]

A significant difference between the Mount

Isa copper ISASMELT plant and all the
others is that it uses an Ahlstrom Fluxflow
waste heat boiler[42] to recover heat from
the furnace waste gas. This boiler uses a
recirculating fluid bed of particles to
rapidly quench the gas as it leaves the
furnace, and then uses the enhanced heat
transfer properties of solid–solid contact
to cool the particles as they are carried
past boiler tubes that are suspended in a
shaft above the bed.[37] The high heat
transfer rate means that the Fluxflow
boiler is relatively compact compared with
conventional waste heat boilers and the
rapid cooling of the waste gas limits the
formation of sulfur trioxide ("SO3"), which
in the presence of water forms sulfuric
acid that can cause corrosion of cool
surfaces.[43]

Mount Isa copper smelter in 2002. The building beneath the left-hand crane is the IS AS MELT plant.

In the early years of operation, the Fluxflow

boiler was the cause of significant down
time, because the rate of wear of the boiler
tubes was much higher than expected.[43]
The problems were solved by
understanding the gas flows within the
boiler redesigning the boiler tubes to
minimise the effects of erosion.[43]
The life of the refractory bricks in the
ISASMELT furnace was initially shorter
than expected and a water cooling system
was briefly considered to extend them;[43]
however, this was not installed and
operational improvements have resulted in
a significant extension of the life of the
lining without this capital and operating
expense.[44] Since 1998, the refractory
lining lives have exceeded the two-year
design life,[12] with lives of the 8th and 9th
linings almost reaching three years.[45] The
most recent lining lasted for 50 months,
with the one before that lasting for 44
months.[46]
In the first years of operation at Mount Isa,
the throughput of the ISASMELT furnace
was constrained by problems with some
of the ancillary equipment in the plant,
including the boiler, slag granulation
system and concentrate filters.[44] The
ultimate constraint was the decision
during its construction to keep one of the
two reverberatory furnaces on line to
increase the copper smelter production to
265,000 t/y of anode copper. The smelter’s
Peirce-Smith converters became a
bottleneck and the feed rate of the
ISASMELT furnace had to be restrained to
allow sufficient matte to be drawn from
the reverberatory furnace to prevent it
freezing solid.[2] The ISASMELT 12-month
rolling average of the feed rate fell just
short of 100 t/h for much of this period,
not quite reaching the design annual
average of 104 t/h.[44] MIM decided to
shut down the reverberatory furnace in
1997, and the ISASMELT plant 12-month
rolling mean feed rate quickly exceeded
the 104 t/h design when this constraint
was lifted.[44]

The performance of the ISASMELT plant

was sufficiently encouraging that MIM
decided to expand the ISASMELT
treatment rate to 166 t/h by adding a
second oxygen plant to allow higher
enrichment of the lance air.[44] As a result,
by late 2001 it had achieve a peak rate of
190 t/h of concentrate, and the smelter
produced a peak annual total of 240,000 t
of anode copper.[44] At that time, the
Mount Isa copper smelter, together with its
copper refinery in Townsville, was among
the lowest cost copper smelters in the
world.

Lance life is typically two weeks, with

lance changes taking 30 to 40 minutes,
and repairs usually being limited to
replacement of the lance tips.[47]
In 2006, MIM commissioned a second
rotary holding furnace that operates in
parallel with the existing holding
furnace.[48]

Sterlite Industries

Sterlite Industries ("Sterlite"), now a

subsidiary of Vedanta Resources, built a
copper smelter in Tuticorin using an
ISASMELT furnace and Peirce-Smith
converters. The smelter was
commissioned in 1996[1] and was
designed to produce 60,000 t/y of copper
(450,000 t/y of copper concentrate),[45] but
by increasing the oxygen content of the
lance air and making modifications to
other equipment, the ISASMELT furnace
feed rate was increased to the point where
the smelter was producing 180,000 t/y of
copper.[12]

Sterlite commissioned a new ISASMELT

furnace in May 2005[48] that was designed
to treat 1.3 million t/y of copper
concentrate,[45] and the smelter’s
production capacity was expanded to
300,000 t/y of copper.[12] The new plant
reached its design capacity, measured
over a three-month period, six months
after it started treating its first feed.[48]
Vedanta’s website states that the new
ISASMELT furnace was successfully
ramped up "in a record period of 45
days".[49]

Since then Sterlite has decided to further

expand its copper production by installing
a third ISASMELT smelter and new refinery
using IsaKidd technology.[50] The new
smelter will have a design capacity of 1.36
million t/y of copper concentrate
(containing 400,000 t/y of copper),
processed through a single ISASMELT
furnace.[51]
Yunnan Copper Corporation

In the 1990s, the Chinese government

decided to increase the efficiency of the
Chinese economy and reduce the
environmental effects of heavy industry by
modernising plants.[9] As a response, the
Yunnan Copper Corporation ("YCC")
upgraded its existing plant, which was
based on a sinter plant and an electric
furnace, with a copper ISASMELT
furnace.[9] As with the Miami smelter, the
electric furnace was converted from
smelting duty to separation of matte and
slag and providing matte surge capacity
for the converters, and again, the small
footprint of the ISASMELT furnace was
very important in retrofitting it to the
existing smelter.[9]

The YCC ISASMELT plant had a design

capacity of 600,000 dry t/y of copper
concentrate and started smelting
concentrate on 15 May 2002.[9] YCC
placed a lot of emphasis on training its
operators, sending people to Mount Isa for
training over a seven-month period during
2001 ahead of the ISASMELT
commissioning.[9] The total cost of the
smelter modernisation program, including
the ISASMELT furnace, was 640 million
yuan (approximately US$80 million) and
the smelter’s concentrate treatment rate
increased from 470,000 t/y to 800,000 t/y
as a result.[52]

The transfer of operating knowledge from

MIM to YCC was sufficient for the first
ISASMELT furnace refractory lining to last
for two years, a marked improvement on
the life of the initial lining of other
plants.[52]

YCC described the modernisation project

as "a great success, achieving all that was
expected."[52] Energy consumption per
tonne of blister copper produced
decreased by 34% as a result of installing
the ISASMELT furnace, and YCC estimated
that during the first 38 months of
operation, it saved approximately US$31.4
million through reduced energy costs
alone,[52] giving the modernisation a very
short payback by industry standards.

In 2004, YCC’s management was

presented with awards for Innovation in
Project Management and the National
Medal for High Quality Projects by the
Chinese government to mark the success
of the smelter modernisation project.[52]

Xstrata subsequently licensed YCC to build

three more ISASMELT plants, one in
Chuxiong in Yunnan Province, China to
treat 500,000 t/y of copper concentrate,
one in Liangshan in Sichuan Province,
China[1] and the other in Chambishi in
Zambia to treat 350,000 t/y of
concentrate.[1] Chuxiong and Chambishi
were commissioned in 2009.[1] Liangshan
was commissioned in 2012.[53]

Mopani Copper Mines

Mopani Copper Mines was part of Zambia

Consolidated Copper Mines Limited until it
was privatised in 2000. It owns the
Mufulira smelter, which operated with an
electric furnace with a nominal capacity of
420,000 t/y of copper concentrate
(180,000 t/y of new copper).[54] Mopani
decided to install a copper ISASMELT plant
that could treat 850,000 t/y of copper
concentrate, including a purpose-designed
electric matte settling furnace to separate
the ISASMELT matte and slag and also
return slag from the smelter’s Peirce-Smith
converters.[54]

Before committing to the ISASMELT

technology, Mopani considered the
following process options:

an electric furnace
 a flash furnace, including one operating
direct-to-blister
the Mitsubishi smelting process
the Teniente converter
the Noranda reactor
an Ausmelt furnace
an ISASMELT furnace.[54]

Mopani considered electric furnaces

unproven at the proposed concentrate
feed rates, and the low sulfur dioxide
concentration in the waste gas would
make its capture very expensive.[54] Flash
furnaces and the Mitsubishi process were
excluded because:
 they were considered too technically
complex for the Zambian environment
they were not well suited for retrofitting
to the Mufulira smelter
they had a high capital cost associated
with them.[54]

Mopani excluded the Teniente converter

and Noranda reactor because of the poor
performance of the Teniente converter at
the other Zambian smelter operating at the
time and because of "the relatively
inexperienced technical resources
available at the time".[54]
Mopani selected ISASMELT technology
over Ausmelt technology after visits to
operating plants in Australia, the United
States of America, and China.[54] The total
cost of the project was US$213 million.
The first feed was smelted in September
2006.[55]

Southern Peru Copper Corporation

The Southern Peru Copper Corporation

("SPCC") is a subsidiary of the Southern
Copper Corporation ("SCC"), one of the
world’s largest copper companies[56] and
currently 75.1% owned by Grupo México.
Grupo México acquired the shares in SPCC
when it bought ASARCO in November
1999[14]

In the 1990s, SPCC was seeking to

modernise its smelter at Ilo in southern
Peru as part of 1997 commitment to the
Peruvian government to capture at least
91.7% of the sulfur dioxide generated in its
smelting operations by January 2007.[56] It
initially selected flash smelting technology
to replace its reverberatory furnaces, at a
cost of almost US$1 billion;[14] however,
one of the first actions following Grupo
México’s acquisition of ASARCO was to
review the proposed Ilo smelter
modernisation plans.[14]
Six different technologies were evaluated
during the review. These were:

Outokumpu flash smelting

the Mitsubishi process
the Noranda reactor
ISASMELT
Ausmelt
the Teniente converter.[56]

The ISASMELT technology was selected as

a result of the review, resulting in a
reduction in the capital cost of almost 50%
and was also the alternative with the
lowest operating costs.[14]
The plant was commissioned in February
2007.[57] In June 2009, the plant had an
average feed rate of 165.2 t/h of
concentrate and 6.3 t/h of reverts (cold
copper-bearing materials that arise from
spillage and accretions in the pots used to
transport matte or other molten
materials).[51]

SPCC has reported a cost of

approximately $600 million for the smelter
modernization.[58]

Kazzinc

Kazzinc selected the copper ISASMELT

process for its Ust-Kamenogorsk
metallurgical complex. It is designed to
treat 290,000 t/y of copper concentrate[1]
and was commissioned in 2011.[59] A
projected capital cost for the smelter and
refinery in 2006 was US$178 million.[60]

First Quantum Minerals

In the fourth quarter of 2011, the First

Quantum Minerals board approved the
construction of an ISASMELT-based
smelter at Kansanshi in Zambia.[61] The
smelter is to process 1.2 million t/y of
copper concentrate to produce over
300,000 t/y of copper and 1.1 million t/y of
sulfuric acid as a by-product.[61]
Construction is expected to be completed
by mid-2014,[62] and the capital cost is
estimated at US$650 million.[63] The
estimated operating cost was given as
US$69 per tonne of concentrate.[63]

The Kansanshi copper smelter project is

estimated to be worth US$340–500 million
per year in reduced concentrate freight
costs, export duties and sulfuric acid
costs.[61]

Commercial secondary-copper ISASMELT

plants

In addition to treating copper

concentrates, ISASMELT furnaces have
also been built to treat secondary (scrap)
copper materials.

Umicore

In the early 1990s, technical personnel

from the then Union Miniére worked with
MIM Holdings personnel to develop an
ISASMELT-based process to treat scrap
materials and residues containing copper
and lead.[38] Union Miniére operated a
smelter at Hoboken, near Antwerpen in
Belgium, that specialised in recycling scrap
non-ferrous materials. The test work
program was undertaken using an
ISASMELT test rig at MIM Holdings’ lead
refinery, Britannia Refined Metals, at
Northfleet in the United Kingdom.[38]

A demonstration plant was designed by

MIM Holdings personnel and operated for
several months at the Hoboken smelter
site.[64] The new smelter was
commissioned in the final quarter of
1997[38] and in 2007 was treating up to
300,000 t/y of secondary materials.[64] The
installation of the ISASMELT furnace
replaced a roasting plant, a sinter plant, 1
of two sulfuric acid plants, a copper blast
furnace and four Hoboken converters.[65] It
substantially reduced operating costs at
the Hoboken smelter.[48]
Umicore’s Hoboken plant uses a two-step
process in a single furnace. The first step
involves the oxidation of the feed to form a
copper matte and a lead-rich slag. The
slag is then tapped and the remaining
copper matte is then converted to blister
copper.[64] The lead-rich slag is
subsequently reduced in a blast furnace to
produce lead metal, while the copper is
refined and the contained precious metals
recovered.[64]

Aurubis

The then Hüttenwerke Kayser smelter at

Lünen in Germany installed an ISASMELT
plant in 2002 to replace three blast
furnaces and one Peirce-Smith converter
used for smelting scrap copper.[64] The
company was subsequently bought by
Norddeutsche Affinerie AG, which in turn
became Aurubis.

The process used at the Lünen smelter

involves charging the furnace with copper
residues and scrap containing between 1
and 80% copper and then melting it in a
reducing environment. This produces a
"black copper phase" and a low-copper
silica slag. Initially the black copper was
converted to blister copper in the
ISASMELT furnace.[64] However, in 2011 the
smelter was expanded as part of the "KRS
Plus" project. A top-blown rotary converter
is now used to convert the black copper
and the ISASMELT furnace runs
continuously in smelting mode.[66][67]

The installation of the ISASMELT furnace

increased the overall copper recovery in
the plant by reducing losses to slag,
reduced the number of furnaces in
operation, decreased the waste gas
volume, and decreased energy
consumption by more than 50%. The
production capacity exceeds the original
design by 40%.[64]
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