To make it possible to extract metal from minerals, the raw ore is enriched to certain grade and the process is called concentration or beneficiation. Raw ore grade and recovery rate are vital indicators for concentrates. However, with the exploration of minerals, rich mines are run out and metal extraction are challenged by the situation that most of the mines are identified as being low grade and difficult-to-concentrate.

Metalcess aims to provide our customer with a full service package for crushing & separation, ore concentrating, solid-liquid separation. The process are designed on the basis of laboratory test and verified by pilot scale plant where the most advanced test facilities and professional engineers are equipped. Metalcess is confident to provide our customer with the optimal process design through various test methods for ore dressing projects from scratch or for upgrading. 

Metalcess offers comprehensive solution for your copper metallurgy project, varying from copper ore, copper scrap, WEEE, copper slag/dross or leaching residue, etc. From process design, detail engineering and equipment supply of the production line, Metalcess provides not only customer-tailed technology but also responsive service. Metalcess makes it possible for our customer to have different final products like copper cathode and copper sulphate, as well as such byproducts as sulfuric acid, precious metal.

Copper metallurgy solution variations are shown in the following table.

Given with several alternatives mentioned-above, Metalcess will, together with the customer, select the optimal process flow based on actual situation of raw material from a technical and economic point of view. 

Extraction of lead metal is less complicated than copper and the dominant method is through pyrometallurgy. Metalcess can design production line of different capacity to suit customer requirement, either lead concentrate or recycling project of spent lead acid battery, lead containing slag and residue, lead containing glass (CRT screen), etc. With different smelting and processing methods, the customer get various of final products such as cathode lead ingot, lead oxide powder, lead paste, lead plate, lead tube as well as other byproducts like sulfuric acid and precious metals from anode slime.

Major steps of lead smelting are presented in the following table. 

For recycling of secondary battery, for example, Spent Lead Acid Battery, it requires a breaking and separation system to separate lead-containing parts from plastics and other non-metal parts. Lead- containing parts can be refined in a separate smelting system or treated together with other lead material like lead concentrate or lead slags, depending on its capacity, product requirement, etc.

Metalcess provides you the integrated system for either lead concentrate or secondary lead. Focusing on maximizing productivity and minimizing overall cost, Metalcess aims to provide our customer with the most optimized solution, reliable equipment and attentive service to your smelting project. Consultation service and inquiries to start new project are available at customer request. 

Extraction of zinc falls into two groups, pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy. Zinc pyrometallurgy has different methods by using different equipments like horizontal retorts, vertical retorts, enclosed blast furnace and electric furnace. Zinc hydrometallurgy includes zinc conventional/ pressure/hot acid leaching + jarosite/ goethite/ hematite precipitation + zinc electrowinning. Process selection depends on the ore concentrate property, local energy supply and water supply. Iron is the major inclusion of zinc concentrate. Whatever the approach is, high iron content in less amount slag/residue with easy separation and less zinc loss is preferred. Apart from economic indicators, environment requirement and energy consumption are factors taken into consideration. 

In terms of zinc pyrometallurgy, horizontal and vertical retorting has been abandoned due to its high energy consumption, low recovery rate and environment pollution. The other three processes used in existing smelters account for only about 15% of global zinc production.

1.    Imperial Smelting Process (ISP) uses enclosed blast furnace to treat zinc lead complex ore. Zinc vapor is released from the top of the furnace while lead is discharged from the furnace bottom. ISP technology had fast development in 1960s-1970s. Due to its high energy consumption and improvement of zinc & lead concentrate separation technology, ISP has lost the advantage to zinc hydrometallurgy. 

2.    Zinc electric arc furnace smelting takes classified sintered ore and coke as raw material to produce zinc vapor. Zinc vapor discharged from the furnace top to a zinc spray condenser to get crude zinc. This crude zinc is distillation refined to high purity zinc and valuable metal like indium, germanium, and silver. Lead are enriched in the distillation residue (hard zinc). The hard zinc is further treated by vacuum distillation to recover valuable metals. In this process, more than 90% indium are captured in zinc vapor and the recovery rate of indium reaches 80%. Electricity consumption of zinc electric arc furnace ranges from 3500-4300kw.h/t crude zinc, depending on the zinc concentrate grade. Compared with vertical retorting process, zinc electric furnace smelting has better adaptability to raw material, especially to high copper-iron-silica zinc concentrate, and higher metal recovery rate. Low investment, short process, easy operation, high direct recovery rate and controllable environment pollution encourage its application in the area with zinc ore and sufficient power supply.    

 

Development of Zinc hydrometallurgy follows the success application of iron precipitation like jarosite and goethite process, which enables zinc acid leaching to be a feasible solution. Introduction of this part please refers to zinc leaching and purification. 

Metalcess developed flash magnetization roasting technology in the aim to recycle goethite generated in the iron removal process of zinc leaching. It can  enrich the goethite residue into standard iron ore for sale. It is the best accessible green solution to recycle iron at high efficiency but low cost.

 

Metalcess also provides solution to treat zinc leaching residue so as to recover lead and silver. By fuming with side-blowing furnace, the final residue as fuming slag are non-hazardous waste suitable for landfilling.

Tin/ Stannum(Sn) is used in many alloys. The production of tin can be from tin ore or secondary tin material. For the extraction of tin, Metalcess can provide comprehensive technology and responsive service for its beneficiation, smelting, refining, recovery and recycling as per your specification.

Secondary material for tin recycling incudes soldering tin, high-tin alloy, tin-bearing bronze, tin containing slag and residue, tin-plating can shell, tin-lead alloy from spent lead acid batteries, Harris slag, etc.

With different smelting and processing methods, the customers get varies of final products such as high purity tin ingot, tin oxide powder, tin alloy, tin plate, tin tube as well as other byproducts like tungsten and indium. 

The extraction of magnesium mainly falls into two groups, i.e. electro-refining (for magnesite) and thermal reduction process (for dolomite). Brief introduction will be given in the following passage.

Thermal reduction process is represented by Pidgeon process, named after its inventor Dr. Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon. Pidgeon process consists of four stages including calcination of the dolomite, briquetting, reduction and refining.

Electro-refining of magnesium uses magnesium chloride from magnesite or carnallite to produce high purity magnesium ingot. In fused salt electrolysis, electro-refining of magnesium chloride generates chlorine, which can be used for Titanium production where TiO₂ is chloridized to TiCl₄ and then reduced to sponge Titanium when MgCl₂ returns fused salt electrolysis. It is called joint processing of magnesium and titanium production. 

Auriferous deposits worldwide are present into three types: vein deposit (5%), placer (70%) and associated gold deposit (25%). The early gold exploitation focused on placer and later turned to vein deposit, which now accounts for 65% of total gold production.

Pretreatment of gold ore had been taken seriously because it contributes a lot to the extraction. Once the ore is mined, the raw ore is firstly crushed and milled to expose auriferous minerals (mainly native metal). Before leaching, the grain size is prepared to 0.4mm, 74μm or 44μm depending on the leaching test result. In case the raw ore is highly oxidized or of too much slurry, hydrocyclone and thickener are used to remove slurry. Gravity separation or flotation may be used to concentrate gold.

Gold minerals is usually treated by cyanide leaching process including heap cyanide leaching, CIP (carbon in pulp), RIP (resin in pulp) and CIL (carbon in leaching). Those gold ore whose leaching rate is less than 80% by conventional cyanide leaching even for 20-30 hours is considered as refractory gold ore. Metalcess develops high temperature chloride leaching technology, especially to deal with refractory gold ore.