Oxygen in Non-Ferrous Metallurgical Processes Past, Present and Future

Abstract

AbstractThe use of tonnage oxygen in non-ferrous extraction metallurgy is now established practice and part of conventional technology, however it was not always so. While technically appreciated in the scientific literature decades before major developments were commercialized, widespread application is comparatively recent. In this paper, the progress of oxygen applications is traced and factors governing the rate of commercialization and acceptance within the industry are examined.Canada has in fact played a leading role in developing oxygen-driven processes in non-ferrous metallurgy. As examples, Cominco, at Trail B.C., was the first to use oxygen-enrichment in zinc and lead pyrometallurgy in the nineteen thirties and forties; Inco pioneered oxygen smelting thirty-five years ago when its new flash furnace was commissioned in Sudbury with oxygen produced in the world's third largest plant. Testwork at Noranda's Horne smelter in the sixties and seventies confirmed production improvements with oxygen enr...