Understanding the slag cooling

phenomenon and its impact on the

slag flotation process.

Stacy Bell, James Pettingill, Boyd Davis, Alain Roy KPM, Canada
Nubia Cardona Delta Consultants, Canada
Roberto Parra Universidad de Concepcin, Chile
Roberto Parada Anglo American Chagres Smelter, Chile
Scope

1. The slag flotation process.

2. The conceptual approach.
3. Experimental study and results.
4. Impact in the economics for the design of a slag cooling process.
5. Conclusions.
The slag flotation process

The technical and scientific literature review shows that the

conditions of slag cooling vary in a wide range and there are no
specific and quantifiable information about the best cooling
condition that optimizes the Cu recovery during the flotation
process.
This work aims to develop a quantifiable analysis to relate the
cooling conditions on the microstructure characteristics of the
solidified slags and its response to a standard flotation test.
The slag flotation process

7
Altonorte FSF-Smelting
6
Bath-Smelting
Daye
%Cu in slag feed

5
Horne XGC
4
3 Dongying
Fangyuan Kennecott
2 Pirdop Chagres
Harjavalta
1
Hayden
0
0 3 5 8 10 13 15 18
%Fe in matte
The slag flotation process

Materials Handling Control

(transport, breaking, matte skull separation,
mixture/dilution, etc.)

Slag Cooling Grinding and Milling

Method (ladles or bed ) Operations
Time of cooling
Cooling media (water or air)

Cu-Slag
Smelting Processing/
/Converting Milling-Flotation
Technology and Cu Recovery Circuit and
furnaces Cu grade Flotation Recipe
operation concentrate
The slag flotation process
Ladle Cooling
Allows controlled and slower cooling
rates, which is favourable to the growth
and coalescence of Cu sulphide particles
before solidification.
Easier recovery of larger coalesced matte
droplets forming a layer at the ladle
bottom.
Cu content in tailings in the range of 0.4-
0.29wt.% (avg. 0.39 wt%)Cu.
Less generation of SO2 (when using
water cooling media).
Cooled, water quenched ladles require
less primary crushing.
Reported energy consumption in milling
(SAG+ball mill): 36.1 kW/t (80% -40
mic. product at the Horne).
Bed Cooling
Relatively small variations in bed
thickness due to poor bed preparation can
have a significant impact on flotation
results.
Dilution in feed to the milling process if
barren rock is used in bed construction;
inventory levels and metal tie-ups result if
broken slag is used.
S emissions associated with the pouring of
liquid slags and during cooling (larger
exposed surface).
Cu content in tailings in the range of 0.45-
0.75wt.% (average 0.59wt.%)Cu which is
higher than ladle cooling due to faster
cooling of the slag in the bed.
Reported energy consumption in milling
(SAG + ball mill): 34 kWh/t (68%-44mic.
Product at Altonorte).
Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc.
The slag flotation process

Ladle slag cooling for three smelters with high performance

Smelter Horne Harjavalta Kennecott

Smelting Slag Noranda reactor Flash Outokumpu Flash Outokumpu
Ladles 13m3 ladles, 36.3mt 12m3 ladles 18m3 ladles and
nominal capacity. 12.7m3 ladles
Cooling time (h) 32 50 (initially 40h) 54 (both ladles)
Cooling water system 30 45lpm 8.3lpm flexible 11 15lpm, 6.4mm
stainless steel hose orifice nipples,15-
without a nozzle 25psi pressure
The slag flotation process

Horne operation
2003

Fineness of grinding (% passing 325 mesh)

Scope

1. The slag flotation process.

2. The conceptual approach.
3. Experimental study and results.
4. Impact in the economics for the design of a slag cooling process.
5. Conclusions.
The conceptual approach.

We want to predict the Cu recovery

The control of solidification based on high temperature
modelling considering:
Phase diagram determination
Minor elements effects
Solidification, nucleation and growth phenomena
FEM to predict the thermal field of a specific device for the
slag cooling.
Spatial distribution of particles in a domain.
Experimental analysis to establish a quantitative description of
the size distribution of particles under different cooling rates.
The conceptual approach.

Cooling Temperature

Flash smelting slag Converter slag

Scope

1. The slag flotation process.

2. The conceptual approach.
3. Experimental study and results.
4. Impact in the economics for the design of a slag cooling process.
5. Conclusions.
Experimental study and results.

The experimental study was focussed in the characterization of

the slag microstructure after controlled cooling
1.5 kg in MgO crucibles under controlled atmosphere and in
equilibrium with an appropriate Cu-Fe-S liquid phase.
Size distribution evaluation of sulphides particles after slow
cooling.

Fe3O4 Cu Fe S SiO2 Al2O3 MgO CaO Na2O K2O

Flash smelting slag 12.16 1.3 42.6 0.8 29.6 5.83 0.98 1.87 0.99 1.15
Coverter slag, frist blown 13.2 3.1 48.9 0.5 30.9 0.44 0.16 0.31 0.15 0.16
Coverter slag, second blown 14.45 3.6 47.9 0.2 30.9 0.42 0.19 0.26 0.15 0.14
Experimental study and results.
Initial condition
Experimental study and results.

100 100

90 90

Cumulative Cu bearing particles (%)

Cumulative Cu bearing particles (%)

80 80

70 70

60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30
Flash Smelting Slag
20 20
converter slag 1st blown
10 converter slag 2nd blown 10

0 0
1 10 100 1000 1 10 100 1000
particle size (mm) particle size (mm)

90C/hr 20C/hr 4C/hr

forced cool Flash smelting slag

Experimental study and results.

100 100

90 90
Cumulative Cu bearing particles (%)

Cumulative Cu bearing particles (%)

80 80

70 70

60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30

20 20

10 10

0 0
1 10 100 1000 1 10 100 1000
particle size (mm) particle size (mm)

90C/hr 20C/hr 4C/hr 90C/hr 20C/hr 4C/hr

first blown second blown

Experimental study and results.

100 2.5 100 3

90 90
2.5
80 2 80
Concetrate grade (%)

Concetrate grade (%)

70 70

Tailing grade (%Cu)

Tailing grade (%Cu)
2
60 1.5 60

50 50 1.5

40 1 40
1
30 30

20 0.5 20
0.5
10 10

0 0 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
Time (min) Time (min)
90C/min 20C/min B 4C/min 90C/min 20C/min B 4C/min
90C/min (tailing) 20C/min (tailing) 4C/min (tailing) 90C/min (tailing) 20C/min (tailing) 4C/min (tailing)

Flash converter first blown

Experimental study and results.

Slag Cooling Rate (oC/hr) Tailing Grade (%Cu) Recovery (%)

Flash 4 0.49 75
Flash 20 0.56 71.3
converter first blown 4 0.49 84.8
converter first blown 20 0.47 85.7
converter first blown 90 0.86 73.6
converter second blown 4 0.35 90.5
converter second blown 20 0.42 89.7
converter second blown 90 0.77 79.9
Scope

1. The slag flotation process.

2. The conceptual approach.
3. Experimental study and results.
4. Impact in the economics for the design of a slag cooling process.
5. Conclusions.
Impact in economics of design

Finite element modelling

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
model of 14 m3 slag ladle with 25 tons (8
m3) of slag.
Due to vessel symmetry, only of the
domain is needed to be modelled to
reduce computation. time.

Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. 20

Impact in economics of design

Finite element modelling

Solid, liquid and semi-solid fractions

computed in post-processing.
Cooling modes at slag bath surface:
Natural air convection
Boiling water heat transfer

Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. 21

Impact in economics of design

Finite element modelling

Water cooling creates a heat pipe effect from the formation of
micro-fissures and water infiltration.
The solidification time (i.e. time required to reach T < 1000C) is
up to three times shorter with water cooling than with air
cooling.
For each cooling method (large ladle, small ladle, bin), the slag
mass will be divided into cooling rates
i.e. 20% of the slag cools from 7C-15C/hr
FEM results are then combined with recovery data for a total
value of copper of each slag

Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. 22

Impact in economics of design

Finite element modelling

Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. 23

Impact in economics of design

Example of copper value calculation

Knowning slag characterization: dissolved Cu and sulphides

Microscopy analysis of size distribution provides total area of
copper sulfides in each charge (ladle, bin. Other).
Conversion of this data to % Vol. of copper sulphides allows
calculation of available copper mass (pre-flotation) in each
charge.

Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. 24

Impact in economics of design

Example of copper value calculation

Flotation Cu
Particle Area Cu Sulfide Cu Sulfides Cu Sulfides
Count Recovery Recovery
Diameter (m) (m2) Vol. (m3) (Vol %) (pre-float) (g)
(%) (g)
1-5 24092 127613 220936 0.9 0.06 50 0.03
5-7 3265 91505 364408 1.5 0.09 70 0.06
7 - 10 3106 171782 961010 4.0 0.24 80 0.19
10 - 13 1737 176822 1342045 5.6 0.34 85 0.29
13 - 17 1121 190010 1860908 7.8 0.47 92 0.43
17 - 21 520 144038 1803337 7.6 0.46 95 0.43
21 - 44 409 243364 4465675 18.8 1.13 98 1.11
44 - 110 59 203193 8970170 37.8 2.27 100 2.27
110 - 320 3 42250 3771729 15.9 0.95 100 0.95
320 - 1036 0 0 0 0.0 0.00 100 0.00

Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. 25

Impact in economics of design

Example of copper value calculation

Copper recovery for each cooling rate is combined with the %
slag that cooled at each rate to give a total value of the slag.
For a 25 t ladle, air cooled (example)
Cooling rate % of slag slag Cu/t recoverable
> 40 oC/h: 30.9% x 25t x 3kg/t = 23.2 kg
15 40 oC/h: 15.6% x 25t x 4kg/t = 15.6 kg
7 15 oC/h: 16.5% x 25t x 5kg/t = 20.6 kg
4 7 oC/h: 14.2% x 25t x 6kg/t = 21.3 kg
< 4 oC/h: 22.8% x 25t x 7kg/t = 39.9 kg
TOTAL 120.6 kg

Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. 26

Scope

1. The slag flotation process.

2. The conceptual approach.
3. Experimental study and results.
4. Impact in the economics for the design of a slag cooling process.
5. Conclusions.
Conclusions

The characterization of the slag cooling pehnomenom is critical

for the design of the slag cooling process. Despite of the
relevance, scarce work have been developed with that objective.
The slag chemistry could be controlled to increase the
solidification DT. That also means that the objective of the slag
quality in the smelting process is not necessarily a minimum Cu
content.
The new approach for the slag cooling and slag chemistry should
give a quantitative result for the best option for slag cooling and
slag operation.
The optimization of the design of the slag cooling is a pending
task that must be considered soon, specially when new projects
are under discussion.

Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. 28