Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zinc. Smelting uses heat and a chemical reducing agent to decompose the ore, driving off other elements as gases or slag and leaving the metal behind. The reducing agent is commonly a fossil-fuel source of carbon, such as carbon monoxide from incomplete combustion of coke—or, in earlier times, of charcoal. The oxygen in the ore binds to carbon at high temperatures, as the chemical potential energy of the bonds in carbon dioxide is lower than that of the bonds in the ore.
Slag is a by-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and recycled metals. Slag is mainly a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. Broadly, it can be classified as ferrous, ferroalloy or non-ferrous/base metals. Within these general categories, slags can be further categorized by their precursor and processing conditions. "Slag generated from the EAF process can contain toxic metals, which can be hazardous to human and environmental health".
Nickeline or niccolite is a mineral consisting primarily of nickel arsenide (NiAs). The naturally-occurring mineral contains roughly 43.9% nickel and 56.1% arsenic by mass, but composition of the mineral may vary slightly.
Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper ores consists of a series of physical, chemical and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, local environmental regulations, and other factors.
Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered metals, and non-metallic materials are also recovered for recycling. Once collected, the materials are sorted into types – typically metal scrap will be crushed, shredded, and sorted using mechanical processes.
Boliden AB is a Swedish multinational metals, mining, and smelting company headquartered in Stockholm. The company produces zinc, copper, lead, nickel, silver, and gold, with operations in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Ireland.
The Bingham Canyon Mine, more commonly known as Kennecott Copper Mine among locals, is an open-pit mining operation extracting a large porphyry copper deposit southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, in the Oquirrh Mountains. The mine is the largest human-made excavation, and deepest open-pit mine in the world, which is considered to have produced more copper than any other mine in history – more than 19,000,000 short tons. The mine is owned by Rio Tinto Group, a British-Australian multinational corporation. The copper operations at Bingham Canyon Mine are managed through Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation which operates the mine, a concentrator plant, a smelter, and a refinery. The mine has been in production since 1906, and has resulted in the creation of a pit over 0.75 miles (1,210 m) deep, 2.5 miles (4 km) wide, and covering 1,900 acres. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966 under the name Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine. The mine experienced a massive landslide in April 2013 and a smaller slide in September 2013.
Arsenical bronze is an alloy in which arsenic, as opposed to or in addition to tin or other constituent metals, is combined with copper to make bronze. The use of arsenic with copper, either as the secondary constituent or with another component such as tin, results in a stronger final product and better casting behavior.
Prym is an internationally active group of companies. It consists of four independent divisions that operate under the umbrella of a holding company: Prym Consumer, Prym Fashion, Prym Intimates and Inovan. The roots of the company go back to the 16th century. It is one of the oldest operating companies in the World. In 1642, the company moved from Aachen, Germany, to Stolberg (Rhineland), Germany. The headquarters have been located there ever since.
Salzgitter AG is a German company, one of the largest steel producers in Europe with an annual output of around seven million tonnes.
Umicore N.V., known as Union Minière before 2001,. is a multinational materials technology company headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
On 17 December 2008, Cumerio and Norddeutsche Affinerie AG (NA) became Aurubis - Europe's biggest copper producer.
Pirdop copper smelter and refinery is the biggest facility for smelting and refining of copper in South-Eastern Europe. The factory is situated between the towns of Pirdop and Zlatitsa in the Sofia Province, western Bulgaria. The plant, which was founded in 1958, had an initial annual capacity of 160,000 tons, which has been expanded to 340,000 tons at present.
Johann Cesar Godeffroy was a German trader, blackbirder and Hanseat.
The conservation and restoration of copper and copper-alloy objects is the preservation and protection of objects of historical and personal value made from copper or copper alloy. When applied to items of cultural heritage, this activity is generally undertaken by a conservator-restorer.
Plants for the production of lead are generally referred to as lead smelters. Primary lead production begins with sintering. Concentrated lead ore is fed into a sintering machine with iron, silica, limestone fluxes, coke, soda ash, pyrite, zinc, caustics or pollution control particulates. Smelting uses suitable reducing substances that will combine with those oxidizing elements to free the metal. Reduction is the final, high-temperature step in smelting. It is here that the oxide becomes the elemental metal. A reducing environment pulls the final oxygen atoms from the raw metal.
Balhashcvetmet, formerly known as BGMC, for Balkhash Mining and Metallurgical Combine, is a copper-smelting combine located on the northern coast of the Lake Balkhash in Balkhash, Kazakhstan.
A-TEC Industries AG was an international industrial holding company based in Vienna, Austria. It belonged to the Austrian industrialist Mirko Kovats. A-TEC was quoted on the Vienna stock exchange from the end of 2006 until February 2014. In 2007, the group of companies accounted for nearly 14.000 employees and had a turnover of more than 2 billion Euro. A-TEC was active in the areas of power plant construction, drive technology, industrial engineering and minerals & metals.
Silberhütte was once a village in the formerly free mining town of Sankt Andreasberg in the Harz mountains in Germany, but since its merger on 1 November 2011 it has been part of the borough of Braunlage. The name of the village goes back to the silver works that was existed here until 1912 and which smelted the ores from the mines around Sankt Andreasberg.
Heinrich Wohlwill was a German-Jewish engineer of electrochemistry.
