Production

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Kola Peninsula; Norilsk; kola peninsula; norilsk
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.189.3411; http://reports.eea.eu.int/EMEPCORINAIR4/en/B336vs2.3.pdf

This chapter presents information on atmospheric emissions during the production of copper in primary smelters. More than 80 copper smelters around the world employ various conventional pyrometallurgical techniques to produce more than 90 % of the total copper production (e.g. Pacyna, 1989). Generally there are 3 steps in this process: 1) roasting of ores to remove sulphur, 2) smelting of roaster product to remove a part of the gangue for production of the copper matte, and 3) converting of the copper matte to blister copper. Atmospheric emissions of sulphur dioxide and heavy metals on fine particles occur during all the above mentioned processes. Both emissions from fuel combustion in the primary copper plants and industrial processes are discussed here. 2 CONTRIBUTIONS TO TOTAL EMISSIONS Emissions of sulphur dioxide from non-ferrous metal production, particularly copper production contribute less than 10 % to the total global emissions of this pollutant. However, copper smelting can be the most important source of sulphur dioxide emissions in certain regions, such as the Kola Peninsula, the Urals, the Norilsk area, and the Fergana region in Russia, Lower Silesia in Poland, and the Gijon region in Spain. The contribution of emissions released from primary copper production to total emissions in countries of the CORINAIR90 inventory is given as follows: