The main stages used in pyrometallurgical processes, to extract copper from its sulfide ores, which aproximately represent 90% of known copper minerals, are smelting and converting.Traditionally, the control of pyrometal1urgical plants has been done by manual control methods supported on operator's experience.This paper presents a description of smelting and converting processes, advances in their automation, functional specifications, and configuration of automation systems for copper smelters.Some introduced functions are data acquisition and processing, alarm messages, historical record and special algorithms for supervisory control.The special algorithms estimate the operational conditions of processes for different charge characteristic.Furthermore, we have estimated the benefits from application of automation systems at these plants.