FEATURE
Electrolyte Soft Aeration System for Copper Electrowinning Plants
Consistent Aeration, Quality Copper Cathode ANCOR TECMIN has an innovative system that guarantees effective soft electrolyte aeration through air sparging in copper electrowinning (EW) plants, which enables the production of high-quality cathodes. The Chile-based, but globally focused company is keen on helping mining companies in Africa use the technology and get more value from their ore.
By Eric Peters
T
here are bright prospects for copper mining companies in Africa due to the envisaged rise in production of electric vehicles, as, increasingly, the world embraces green alternatives to fossil fuel-powered vehicles. Copper is a major component in electric vehicles used in electric motors, batteries, inverters, wiring and in charging stations.
For mining companies, this is the ideal time to ensure that the performance of critical equipment like electrowinning (EW) plants is optimum. For this reason, ideally, plant engineers have to see to it that vital elements that create perfect conditions for the recovery of highquality copper on cathodes are in place. Unfortunately, in reality, the desired results are not always cast in stone.
The challenge
One of the challenges that is often encountered in EW plants is local fluctuations in electrolyte composition which have negative effects on copper deposit process, especially with high current densities. The ‘time-honored’ approach is homogenizing the electrolyte. Nevertheless, more often than not, most ‘conventional’ air distribution devices that have been developed to carry out the process, fail way short to produce the desired outcome. Poor homogenization hampers electrowinning, frequently, resulting in the following challenges: Lower concentration of copper ion near cathode surface, due to reduced efficiency and uneven copper deposits; as well as nodules and other quality
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defects. Evidently, there has been a need for a practical and convenient process to homogenize the electrolyte.
An innovative alternative system
After noticing the potential losses copper mining companies had been incurring due to poor homogenization, Chilebased but globally focused, ANCOR TECMIN developed an innovative system that guarantees effective soft electrolyte aeration through air sparging. Thus far, the company’s system (Electrolyte Aeration System) has excelled in twenty projects where it has been deployed globally, improving the output of EW plants (through the quality and quantity of copper recovered). ANCOR TECMIN is keen to replicate the success of
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