On Oct. 9, China ENFI officially contracted with Huading Copper Development Co., Ltd. for the design and main-equipment procurement of Huading Copper Smelter Upgrading Project (by using oxygen bottom-blowing continuous converting technology, i.e. BCC technology).

　　Huading Copper Smelter, designed by ENFI in 2009, is the third smelter in China adopting oxygen bottom-blowing copper smelting technology (SKS/BSS copper smelting technology). The process of SKS smelting + P-S converting was once used. The system has been in good operation during the past several years with internationally advanced operating indexes. Yet as the environmental requirements is increasingly strict, low-altitude pollution caused by P-S converter has been bothering the smelter. During the smelter upgrading, the advanced BCC technology will be used to replace existing P-S converting process. After upgrade, anode copper output will be 100kt/a. With BCC process, the disadvantages of P-S converting such as large and volatile offgas volume, low-altitude offgas dispersion will be completely solved, S recovery will be increased and offgas handling cost be reduced.

　　BCC technology is a new process which is independently created and developed by ENFI based on SKS/BBS technology. It was patented to ENFI in 2010. In March 2014, the world’s first SKS+BCC demonstration operation line was commercialized in Yuguang Yuchuan Copper Smelter. The smelter has been in stable operation so far and the first furnace batch reaches 16 months. The operating indexes are continuously improved and completely exceeded the expectations, which is highly praised as “a new miracle” in copper smelting industry.

　　So far, nearly 80% of copper matte in the world is still processed by the P-S converter. Now the modification project of replacing P-S converter with BCC furnace is underway, which indicates that BCC technology is going to be officially used to eliminate backward converting processes. It can be foreseen that in the near future the BCC process, featuring with such advantages as good environment performance, low energy consumption, easy operation, wide adaptability of feed, simple feed preparation, etc., will gradually dominate the technology market and lead the development trend of copper smelting industry.