Patent ID: 6843827

Claim:
A method of smelting copper sulfide concentrate comprising: oxygen-smelting the copper sulfide concentrate, which includes Fe and S, using a concentrate burner located above a melt to produce a slag and at least one of white metal, nearly white metal matte, and blister copper by adding SiO 2 material and CaO material to the copper sulfide concentrate as flux; removing most of the Fe in the copper sulfide concentrate into the slag; removing at least a portion of the S in the copper sulfide concentrate as SO 2 ; and obtaining copper from copper sulfide concentrate as at least one of white metal, nearly white matte, and blister copper; wherein the slag produced by oxygen-smelting the copper sulfide concentrate consists essentially of CaO, SiO 2 , Fe oxides, and Cu oxides and has a weight ratio of CaO to (SiO 2 +CaO) of greater than 0.6 to 0.85 and a weight ratio of Fe to (FeO x +SiO 2 +CaO) of greater than 0.5 to 0.6, and wherein the slag is maintained at a temperature of up to 1280° C.