|
The IsaKidd Technology is a copper electrorefining and electrowinning technology that was developed independently by Copper Refineries Proprietary Limited (“CRL”), a Townsville, Queensland subsidiary of MIM Holdings Limited (which is now part of the Glencore Xstrata group of companies), and at the Falconbridge Limited (“Falconbridge”) now-dismantled Kidd Creek refinery that was at Timmins, Ontario. It is based around the use of reusable cathode starter sheets for copper electrorefining and the automated stripping of the deposited “cathode copper” from them.〔J C Jenkins, “Copper tank house technology reviewed and assessed,” in: ''The Aus.I.M.M. North Queensland Branch, Smelting and Refining Operators Symposium, May 1985'' (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne, 1985), 195–204.〕 ==Introduction== The current IsaKidd technology represents the merger of the copper refining technologies developed by the two different organisations. The initial Isa Process development in the late 1970s, with its reusable stainless-steel cathode starter sheets, represented an advance on the previous technology of single-use starter sheets of pure copper,〔 the production of which was a labour-intensive process. The production of the single-use starter sheets involved laying down a sheet of copper by electrolysis on each side of a “mother plate”.〔 Generating the sheet took a day, and thousands of sheets could be needed every day.〔 Originally, the copper starter sheets were separated from the mother plate manually, but over time the process was automated.〔〔O Nakai, H Sato, K Kugiyama and K Baba, “A new starting sheet plant at the Toyo copper refinery and productivity improvements,” in: ''Proceedings of Copper 99–Cobre 99 International Conference, Volume III—Electrorefining and Electrowinning of Copper'', Eds J E Dutrizac, J Ji and V Ramachandran (The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society: Warrendale, Pennsylvania, 1999), 279–289.〕 In addition, limitations associated with the use of copper starter sheets meant that it was difficult to meet the purity specifications of some new copper applications that were, in the 1970s and 1980s, demanding higher quality copper. The development of the Isa Process tank house technology at CRL eliminated the whole process and cost of producing the starter sheets by using stainless-steel permanent cathodes.〔 It also included substantial automation of the process of inserting the permanent cathodes into the electrolytic cells and their subsequent removal and stripping of the sheets of deposited cathode copper.〔 The labour force required to operate a refinery using the IsaKidd technology has been estimated at 60–70% less of that required for refineries using starter sheets.〔W Armstrong, “The Isa Process and its contribution to electrolytic copper,” paper presented at the ''Rautomead Conference, Scotland, August 1999''.〕〔W R Hopkins and I E Lewis, “Recent innovations in SX/EW plants to reduce capital and operating costs,” ''Minerals & Metallurgical Processing'', February 1990, 1–8.〕 MIM Holdings began marketing the Isa Process technology in 1980, as a result of demand from other refinery operators. Falconbridge subsequently independently developed a similar process to improve operations at its Kidd Creek copper refinery, near Timmins, Ontario.〔(“About ISAKIDD Technology.” ) Accessed 20 June 2013.〕 The initial development of permanent cathodes was for internal use, but marketing of the Kidd Process was initiated in 1992 after requests from other refinery operators.〔P E Donaldson and P J Murphy, “Kidd Process permanent cathode technology advancements,” in: ''Proceedings of () Copper 99–Cobre 99 International Conference. Volume III—Electrorefining and Electrowinning of Copper'', Eds J E Dutrizac, J Ji and V Ramachandran (The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society: Warrendale, Pennsylvania, 1999) 301–310.〕 The two technologies were brought together as the IsaKidd Technology in 2006, when Xstrata bought Falconbridge.〔 The IsaKidd Technology now dominates global copper refining. It has been licensed to 102 users and Xstrata Technology, which markets the technology, reports on its website a total installed capacity of some 12 million tonnes per year (“t/y”) of copper production, as of October 2011.〔(List of IsaKidd installations. ) Accessed 20 June 2013.〕 This is about 60% of the estimated 2011 global refined copper production of 19.7 million tonnes.〔(''The World Copper Factbook 2012'' ), International Copper Study Group. Accessed 29 June 2013.〕 The development of the IsaKidd technology allowed increased productivity, reduced operating costs and the production of consistent, high-quality cathode copper.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「IsaKidd refining technology」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|