Generally speaking, the copper extraction method includes concentrating the broken copper sulfide (such as chalcopyrite) through foam flotation to produce copper (Cu) with a concentration grade of about 20-30%. Then mix the silicon flux with the concentrate. After flash smelting, conversion, and anode casting, the finished product (99.0% pure copper) is added to the refinery to obtain 99.9% pure copper. In order to conduct good research on copper, it is necessary to use the Yijingtong (formerly Inos) XRF spectrometer for analysis.

The grade and quality of the molten slag in flash smelting are two * important factors that affect the subsequent smelting process (such as conversion and refining) and overall productivity. The low concentration of ice copper means that the copper recovery rate is not high, and the content of iron (mainly composed of iron sulfide) in ice copper will affect the operation of the converter. The suitable concentration of matte is 48%, and the suitable concentration of iron is 10%. Adjust the extinction level by changing the ratio of total oxygen input (in air or oxygen enriched air) to concentration feed rate. Inappropriate adjustments may lead to reduced productivity, such as loss of copper in slag and/or waste of resources (hours and energy).

In order to study the application of XRF spectrometer in copper smelting process control, a series of samples were collected from copper smelters for monitoring the composition of copper matte. The sample can be directly measured using a handheld XRF spectrometer without further sample preparation. Due to the high thermal conductivity of the sample and the analyzer's ability to handle hot samples, we do not need to wait for the sample to cool down. The sample can be obtained within a few minutes after sampling.

By using an XRF detector to monitor the smelting process, operators can track the composition of the frosted material and see when it is ready to be transferred to the converter. In this study, the first matte sample containing 56% copper but 17% iron did not meet the copper iron concentration standard for transfer to the converter. High concentration iron requires high oxygen input to burn sulfur and iron oxide under low light conditions. Add additional silicon dioxide and react with iron oxide to suck iron into the slag phase. With the increase of air and silica, more iron is repelled into the slag phase, resulting in a decrease in the concentration of iron in the matte, thereby improving the grade of the matte.

In order to confirm the measurement results of the XRF detector, all samples were sent to the laboratory for inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis. Displayed the correlation between the on-site instrument Jingtong (formerly Inos) XRF detector for measuring copper and iron and ICP analysis in the laboratory. It should be pointed out that running ICP analysis for each sample takes several hours, while XRF detectors can complete the results in seconds. The results indicate that the XRF alloy detector is suitable for on-site monitoring.

The above is the application of XRF alloy detector in copper mines introduced by Yingzhou Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. If you want to learn more about the instrument detection details, please contact us.