The photographer visited the Chiquicamata copper smelter near the mining town of Calama in Chile in January 2011. This is the anode casting section of the smelter. Anodes are then electrolytically refined to 99.9% pure copper (known as LME grade-A copper), a process which could take 28 days. This part of the copper production process is uniform throughout the world. The only difference being the degree of automation. The photographer ran the Luanshya copper smelter (for leave coverage), in the early 1990's, that 1930's-vintage smelter, had similar anode-casting facilities. The smelting line in Luanshya comprised reverberatory furnaces, Pierce-Smith converters and anode furnace. The fuel used was pulverised coal. Oxygen was removed from the molten copper in the anode furnace, prior to casting, by "poling".
The photographer visited the Chiquicamata copper smelter near the mining town of Calama in Chile in January 2011. This is the anode casting section of the smelter. Anodes are then electrolytically refined to 99.9% pure copper (known as LME grade-A copper), a process which could take 28 days. This part of the copper production process is uniform throughout the world. The only difference being the degree of automation. The photographer ran the Luanshya copper smelter (for leave coverage), in the early 1990's, that 1930's-vintage smelter, had similar anode-casting facilities. The smelting line in Luanshya comprised reverberatory furnaces, Pierce-Smith converters and anode furnace. The fuel used was pulverised coal. Oxygen was removed from the molten copper in the anode furnace, prior to casting, by "poling".
The photographer visited the Chiquicamata copper smelter near the mining town of Calama in Chile in January 2011. This is the anode casting section of the smelter. Anodes are then electrolytically refined to 99.9% pure copper (known as LME grade-A copper), a process which could take 28 days. This part of the copper production process is uniform throughout the world. The only difference being the degree of automation. The photographer ran the Luanshya copper smelter (for leave coverage), in the early 1990's, that 1930's-vintage smelter, had similar anode-casting facilities. The smelting line in Luanshya comprised reverberatory furnaces, Pierce-Smith converters and anode furnace. The fuel used was pulverised coal. Oxygen was removed from the molten copper in the anode furnace, prior to casting, by "poling".