A concentrate burner provided over a reaction shaft of a copper smelting furnace, is characterized by comprising: a raw material supply portion that supplies a starting material into the reaction shaft, the starting material including copper concentrate; and an additive supply portion that is provided separately from the raw material supply portion and supplies solid additive to the starting material.

Provided is a method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt, which is capable of efficiently and selectively separating copper, and nickel and cobalt from an alloy containing copper, nickel and cobalt such as a highly anticorrosive alloy that is obtained by subjecting a waste lithium ion battery to a dry treatment and contains copper, nickel and cobalt. According to the present invention, an alloy containing copper, nickel and cobalt is brought into contact with an acid in the coexistence of a sulfurization agent, thereby obtaining a solid that contains copper and a leachate that contains nickel and cobalt.

Disclosed in the present application is a copper rotation-suspension smelting process comprising: mixing a flux and/or fume with dried copper-containing mineral powders to form a mixed material, which enters into a smelting furnace through a material channel; allowing a reaction gas to form a swirling flow under an action of a swirler, which enters into the smelting furnace through a Venturi channel under a guidance of a swirling gas channel; replenishing the reaction gas and/or a fuel to the smelting furnace through an auxiliary oxygen channel and an auxiliary fuel channel; subjecting the swirling flow which has been subjected to high-speed expansion through the Venturi channel and enters into the smelting furnace to a contact reaction with the mixed material; separating a melt generated by the reaction which falls into a settling tank into a residue layer and a copper-containing product layer.

A method capable of inexpensively recovering valuable metals is provided. The method for recovering a valuable metal includes: a preparation step of preparing a charge containing at least lithium (Li) and a valuable metal; an oxidation and reductive melting step of subjecting the charge to an oxidation treatment and a reductive melting treatment to produce a reduced product containing a molten alloy and a slag, the molten alloy containing the valuable metal; and a slag separation step of separating the slag from the reduced product to recover the molten alloy, in which the mole ratio of lithium (Li) to aluminum (Al) (Li/Al ratio) in the slag is 0.15 or more and less than 0.40, and the mole ratio of calcium (Ca) to aluminum (Al) (Ca/Al) in the slag is 0.15 or more.

The present disclosure generally relates to processes for the reduction of transition metals using alkali metals to produce reduced transition metals.

A method for co-producing blister copper by enriching germanium and indium from a copper sulfide ore comprises: mixing a copper sulfide ore containing germanium and indium, a reducing agent and a fluxing agent in proportion and then grinding; subjecting the mixture to reduction matte smelting to obtain volatile smoke containing germanium and indium and copper matte respectively; subjecting the copper matte to oxygen-enriched blowing to volatilize germanium and indium, so as to obtain the blister copper and volatile smoke containing germanium and indium respectively; and oxidizing fumes discharged from bag dust collection by ozone, and then absorbing them by spraying alkali liquor to reach up-to-standard discharge. In the reduction smelting stage, the volatilization rate of germanium and indium is more than 70%; and in the copper matte oxygen-enriched blowing stage, the volatilization rate of germanium and indium is more than 25%.

Provided is a method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt, which is capable of efficiently and selectively separating copper, and nickel and cobalt from an alloy containing copper, nickel and cobalt such as a highly anticorrosive alloy that is obtained by subjecting a waste lithium ion battery to a dry treatment and contains copper, nickel and cobalt. According to the present invention, an alloy containing copper, nickel and cobalt is brought into contact with an acid in the coexistence of a sulfurization agent, thereby obtaining a solid that contains copper and a leachate that contains nickel and cobalt.

The invention relates to a method and to an arrangement for feeding fine-grained matter to a concentrate or matte burner (1) of a suspension smelting furnace (2). The arrangement comprising a fluidization arrangement (3) for feeding fluidized fine-grained matter into a dosing bin (4), and a conveyor means (6) for feeding fluidized fine-grained matter from the dosing bin (4) to the concentrate or matte burner (1) of the suspension smelting furnace (2), and a loss-in-weight controller (5) between the dosing bin (4) and the conveyor means (6). The arrangement comprises an impact cone (8) arranged below a filling valve (7) between the fluidization arrangement (3) and the dosing bin (4) for distributing fluidized fine-grained matter flowing from the fluidization arrangement (3) within the dosing bin (4).

A method for refining sulfidic copper concentrate includes feeding sulfidic copper concentrate and oxygen-bearing reaction gas and slag forming material into a reaction shaft of a suspension smelting furnace, collecting slag and blister copper in a settler of the suspension smelting furnace to form a blister layer containing blister copper and a slag layer, and discharging slag and blister copper separately from the settler of the suspension smelting furnace, so that slag is fed into an electric furnace. The method further includes feeding a part of the sulfidic copper concentrate into the electric furnace.

The present invention provides a method of converting copper containing material to blister copper comprising: (a) providing copper containing material comprising copper sulfides and iron sulfides, whereby the copper containing material comprises at least 35 wt % copper of the total weight of the copper containing material; (b) reacting the copper containing material in a furnace with an oxygen containing gas, in the absence of flux, to effect oxidation of iron sulfide and copper sulfide, and controlling injection of the oxygen containing gas and the temperature so that the resulting converter slag is in a molten phase to obtain blister copper and converter slag.