Copper Smelting
Once copper was used widely as an important part of various industries, such as the electrical industry. Copper minerals that are discovered in nature must first be smelted. The first step in smelting copper from ore is to use flotation to separate the necessary ore from impurities or slag. This comes from Archimedes' Principle of Buoyant Force, the buoyant force of a liquid acting on an object is equal to the weight of the liquid displaced by the volume of the object that sinks in the liquid.
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This method involves mixing finely ground ores with water, oil and detergent in a mixing tank and stirring. The oil will adhere to the mineral particles and float on the top. The slag will sink to the bottom. When the bubbles on top of the ore are scraped out and dried, it produces an ore that contains around 15% more copper by mass.
The next step is to separate the copper sulfide by roasting process to reduce the sulfur content before putting it into the reverberatory furnace. The temperature must be in the range of 800-1000 degrees Celsius, which is lower than that required for steel smelting. Matte is formed when copper ore is transformed to copper oxide and melted together. Then transfer the molten Matte to the converter and blow air for 8-10 hours each 12-200 ton of Matte.
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Blowing air into the converter causes oxygen to react with the impurity iron and sulfur, resulting in sludge or slag. This allows copper oxides to react with copper sulfide to remain copper only. However, the copper from the converter is not particularly pure, containing only around 79-98%. As a result, electrolysis is required to purify the copper further. It will then receive 99.95% pure copper.
Kung, K. (2018, June 30). การถลุงทองแดง. Prezi.Com. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://prezi.com/p/rt7pyes2pzsm/presentation/
ทองแดง - สารานุกรมไทยสำหรับเยาวชนฯ. (n.d.). Saranukromthai. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://www.saranukromthai.or.th/sub/book/book.php?book=2&chap=5&page=t2-5-infodetail06.html
แรงลอยตัว - Thermophysics. (n.d.). Thermophysics. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://sites.google.com/site/thermophysic/khxnghil/buoyant-force
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