THE KENNECOTT UTAH COPPER REFINERY MODERNIZATION

In early 1992, Kennecott announced plans to modernize and expand the s melter and refinery located near Salt Lake City, Utah. The project inc reased the smelter capacity from 150,000 tonnes per year to 280,000 to nnes per year and also increased the refinery capacity from 200,000 to nnes per year to meet smelter output. Total cost of the modernization was $882 million. Part I of this paper outlines the scope of the refin ery modernization program and describes the implementation of the new technology used there. The technology is based on polymer concrete cel ls, thoroughly prepared anodes, stainless steel plating blanks, and hi ghly automated materials handling. In Part II, the hydrometallurgical process chemistry employed at the new Kennecott slimes treatment facil ity is described. The processing philosophy incorporates three major o bjectives: very-high first-pass recovery of the valuable metals from t he slimes with minimal in-process inventory; minimization of the retur n of impurity metals (e.g., Pb, Sb, As, and Bi) to the smelter circuit ; and complete elimination of pyro-metallurgical processing with its p otential for environmental abuse and precious metals recycle. In both parts, the unit start-ups and initial operating results are presented.