An investigation of copper matte vacuum purification was undertaken. A mathematical model using monatomic, diatomic sulphide and diatomic oxide vapours of the impurities was developed to explain the vacuum refining process. The model was used to predict the overall refining rates for variables such as temperature, matte grade, oxygen activity and chamber pressure of the melt. / A series of experiments was undertaken to characterize the dust produced during vacuum refining of copper matte. An attempt to selectively condense the vapours produced during the vacuum refining experiments was carried out. / The "Lift-Spray" vacuum refining process was used to refine 15 to 40 kg batches of molten copper matte containing 35 to 78% copper. The removal rates of lead, bismuth, arsenic, antimony, selenium, nickel and silver were measured under different levels of matte grade, chamber pressure, lifting gas flow rate and dissolved oxygen content in the melt. The ranges of the variables under study were from 10 to 600 pascals chamber pressure, 0 to 40 normal milliliter per second of lifting gas flow rate and 10$ sp{-16}$ to 10$ sp{-7}$ atmosphere of oxygen activity. / In conclusion, LSV refining of copper matte was shown to be a promising process. Furthermore, scale-up to industrial size is now possible. The scale-up dimensions compare well to the dimensions of the RH degassing unit presently used in the steel industry. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.70215 |
| Date | January 1991 |
| Creators | Allaire, André |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001259818, proquestno: AAINN72097, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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