"All-element data will be automated, intelligent, and visualized," Cao Tao, deputy team leader of the Smelting System Project Team at Jinchuan Group Hexibu Industrial Park, said and explained that after the completion of the Jinchuan Copper Smelting Process Technology Upgrade Project, a greener, safer, and more efficient smelting plant will be established.
The Smelting System Project Team at Jinchuan Group Hexibu Industrial Park [Photo by Li Deyu]
Cao said that the main process of the project will adopt the most advanced technology in China currently -- the three-in-one furnace copper smelting process with side-blown smelting as the core. This process will be more environmentally friendly, having a shorter processing cycle, strong adaptability to raw materials, low processing costs and very obvious advantages.
Cao Tao, deputy team leader of the Smelting System Project Team at Jinchuan Group Hexibu Industrial Park
In addition, the project will employ a series of intelligent equipment, for example for intelligent ore blending for copper concentrates, intelligent slow cooling for slag selection, intelligent distribution system for anode plates, and an automatic sulfuric acid filling system. By applying intelligent equipment to non-ferrous metallurgy, which is expected to increase labor productivity, leading the transformation and upgrading of the copper smelting industry.
The Jinchuan Copper Smelting Process Technology Upgrade Project is a major construction project in Gansu province during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25). With a total investment exceeding 5.5 billion yuan ($758 million), the project is scheduled to begin operations in October 2024. Once completed, it will address the bottleneck issue of the difficulty in processing high-impurity, precious metal-containing raw materials in the copper smelting furnace system.
