Glosssary

The following list of definitions is in alphabetical order. Use your browser's search function to find the word that you are looking for. A more interactive and complete glossary is planned to be implemented in the coming months. Many of the words appearing in this glossary italicized on their first occurance in the process descriptions and linked to this glossary.

Definitions:

• Anode: The electrode in an electrolytic cell that donates electrons.
• Autogeneous: A pyrometallurgical process is said to be autogeneous when it is self sufficient; i.e., once started, it proceeds on its own, without the operator's interference. For example, roasting of sulphide concentrates is often autogeneous, as once the process has begun, it produces enough heat to continue to completion.
• Base Metal: (1) Any metal other than a precious or noble metal. (2) The principal metal of an alloy. (3) The principal metal of a piece underlying a coating of another metal.
  Example: Iron (Fe), aluminum (Al), magnesium (Mg), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn)...
• Blast: The air (or oxygen-enriched air) that is forced into a reaction vessel. Not usually referring to the air or oxidant that is supplied with a fuel in a burner.
  Example: the air forced into a copper converter, a lead blast furnace, a copper flash furnace along with the concentrate.
• Blister Copper: Product of matte converting consisting of a crude molten metallic phase (99% Cu). Blister copper is then sent to refining.
• Casting: Generic term referring to a process by which a complex shape is formed by pouring a fluid material into a shaped mold.
• Cathode: The electrode in an electrolytic cell that recieves electrons.
• Coke: Hydrocarbon heated to remove volatiles to get pure carbon.
• Concentration: The process of upgrading a mined ore with respect to some contained valuable mineral, i.e., increasing the value-metal content of the material to be processed.
  Example: froth flotation of copper concentrate, gravity separation of gold particles, heavy media separation of mineral sands.
• Cryogenic Processing: The step-wise sequential compression and decompression of atmospheric air to cool and compress it sufficiently to cause it to liquify.
  Example: Production of tonnage oxygen for used in copper flash furnace blast enrichment.
• Electrometallurgical: Pertaining to metallurgical operations that involve processing with the passage of electrical current, can be in an aqueous system or can be at temperatures substantially above ambient conditions in fused salt systems, generally involving chemical reactions to either precipitate a metal from the liquid phase or to refining a metal by transferring the metal from an anode to a cathode leaving the impurities in the anode behind.
  Example: Electrorefining of copper anode to produce pure copper cathodes, extraction of magnesium from NaCl-KCl-MgCl2 fused salt, recovery of aluminum in aluminum reduction cells.
• Froth Flotation: A method of separating metal-containing minerals from gangue, by adding a chemical to a pulp mixture of water and mineral rendering metal-containing minerals hydrophobic. The hydrophobic particles will cling to air bubbles which pass through the mixture thus separating them from other particles. This selectivity is reached through the addition of chemical reagents to the pulp.
• Hearth Furnace: Furnace in which the charge rests on the hearth or kiln wall and is heated by hot gases passing over it.
• Hydrocarbon: Any of a large class of organic compounds containing primarily carbon and hydrogen.
• Hydrometallurgical: Pertaining to metallurgical operations that involve processing in which the principal phase is water, can be at temperatures and pressure substantially above ambient conditions when autoclaves are used, generally involves chemical reactions.
  Example: Leaching of zinc calcine with sulphuric acid to recover zinc containing solution, solvent extraction of uranium from solution.
• Industrial Oxygen: The tonnage product of air separation by cryogenic processing. Can sometimes contain as much as 5% nitrogen.
  Example: Used in Outokumpu, INCO, Noranda and Mitsubishi copper matte smelting furnaces.
• Leachant: A leachant is the acidic solution used to leach or dissolve a metal usually originally in an oxide form.
• Matte Smelting: The treatment of an sulphide ore or sulphide concentrate with sufficient heat to cause melting of the sulphide mineral(s) in the ore or concentrate such that a molten metal sulphide phase is formed.
  Example: Copper extraction, nickel extraction and proposed for pyrometallurgical production of zinc from zinc sulphide ores and zinc containing oxide residues.
• Mineral: Compound of one or more metallic elements with one or more other elements.
  Example: Chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), galena (PbS), sphalerite (ZnS), chalcocite (Cu2S), pyrite (FeS2), silica (SiO2), alumina (Al2O3), magnesia (MgO), lime (CaO), hematite (Fe2O3), magnetite (Fe3O4), wustite (FeO)...
• Noble or Precious Metal: A metal of the gold, silver, or platinum group.
  Example: Gold (Au), silver (Ag), platinum (Pt), rhenium (Rh)...
• Non-Ferrous: Concerning any metal other than iron or metal alloy whose principal constituent is not iron.
  Example: Copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), aluminum (Al), zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), magnesium (Mg)...
• Oxidized Mineral: A mineral that has been reacted partially or completely with oxygen.
  Example: Chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) being converted to copper sulphate (CuS2), sphalerite (ZnS) being converted to zinc oxide (ZnO)...
• Oxygen-Enriched: Air that has had pure (or industrial) oxygen added to it.
  Example: Copper smelting or converting, lead blast furnace.
• Pregnant Solution: A solution containing metallic ions with a high enough concentration to allow efficient extraction.
• Pyrometallurgical: Pertaining to metallurgical operations that involve processing at temperatures above ambient conditions, generally involving chemical reactions as distinct from metal casting substantiallywhich involves only a physical transformation, i.e., solidification.
  Example: Fluid-bed roasting of zinc concentrates, matte smelting of copper concentrates, fire refining of blister copper, refining of lead bullion.
• Reverberatory Furnace: A furnace, with a shallow hearth, usually non-regenerative, having a roof that deflects the flame and radiates the heat towards the hearth or the surface of the charge.
• Roasting: The treatment of an ore or concentrate with heat and causing partial or full oxidation of the reactive species present in the ore or concentrate.
  Example: Pretreatment of nickel concentrates prior to reverberatory smelting (obsolete), sulphur elimination from zinc concentrates to produce zinc calcine.
• Skimming: The separation of the matte phase from the slag phase.
• Solvent Extraction: Use of organic solvents to selectively extract metals from dilute solutions.
• Sulphide: Mineral compound containing sulphur the but no oxygen.
  Example: Chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), galena (PbS), and chalcocite (Cu2S); not antlerite (Cu3SO4(OH)4).
• Tap: A quantity of a liquid, as molten metal from a furnace, run out at one time.
• Tuyere: A tube through which air or oxygen is blown into a blast furnace.