Direct smelting process of copper carbonate ore using SiO2 as fluxing agent in electric arc furnace

Abstract

ABSTRACT The demand for copper, especially from the transportation sector, continues to increase. However, the supply of copper still depends on the primary process production, namely processing or extracting copper from its ore. In addition to copper sulfide ores, copper oxide and carbonate ores are alternative raw materials for copper production, especially in countries with abundant copper reserves, such as Indonesia. This study aims to analyse the effect of SiO2 flux addition in the direct smelting process of mixed oxide and carbonate-type copper ore. This study used an electric arc furnace to carry out the smelting process. The addition of SiO2 varied between 0 and 8 wt% with an interval of 2 wt%. As a result, a direct smelting product was successfully made with a Cu content of 87.01 wt% and Cu recovery of 92.6% when using 4 wt% SiO2. The slag’s main compounds were SiO2, Fe2SiO4, FeSiO3, and Fe3O4.