KIVCET is a technology for melting lead raw materials developed by VNIITSVETMET (since 1993 it has been part of the National Center for Integrated Processing of Mineral Raw Materials of the Republic of Kazakhstan).
Its uniqueness lies in the use of weighted melting of raw materials and the combination of oxidation and reduction stages in one compact and hermetic unit. The sulfur dioxide gases produced during melting are completely disposed of in sulfuric acid production.
In practice, this means that lead sulfide and lead-zinc concentrates are processed into a higher conversion product without fuel costs and environmental pollution from lead and sulfur dioxide gases. At the same time, the industrial implementation and improvement of the process and the unit make it possible to solve the environmental problems of lead-zinc production, reduce energy consumption, achieve high metal recovery rates, and minimize unproductive downtime due to reliable and stable operation of the smelting unit.
Thus, KIVCET advantageously replaces the environmentally dirty, but widely used technology of "agglomeration – mine melting" of lead raw materials.
The relevance and high efficiency of the technology has been evaluated on the global market and implemented in Kazakhstan and abroad. Industrial cement complexes were built in Bolivia, Italy and Canada. In Canada, an improved KIVCET has been introduced, capable of melting various lead-zinc raw materials – not only concentrates, but also low-quality oxidized raw materials. KIVCET alone allowed the Canadian company Tech Cominco to melt 120,000 tons of lead per year from a charge that contains up to 80% of lead-containing zinc industrial products at the Trail plant.
The total capacity of the plants built 15 years ago was 300 thousand tons of lead per year.Today, KIVCET allows efficient processing of environmentally hazardous and difficult-to-recycle lead-containing waste, industrial products from zinc and copper plants, secondary raw materials, including cakes from zinc leaching processes, lead dust from melting and converting copper raw materials, sewage sludge, battery scrap products and other "industrial waste".
In recent years, due to the ability of the KIVCET process to process various lead, zinc and copper-containing materials, China's largest metallurgical companies Jiangxi Copper Lead and Zinc Metal Co. and Zhuzhou Smelter Group Co. acquired patent licenses from VNIItsvetmet, designed and built two KIVCET complexes with a capacity of 100 and 120 thousand tons of lead per year, respectively.
Changshan Non-Ferrous Metals Design Institute (China), with which VNIITSVETMET has been cooperating for more than 20 years, became the general designer of the lead plants.
The Jiangxi Copper Lead and Zinc Metal Co. steel complex, built as part of a new lead-zinc metallurgical plant in the Huko industrial district of Jiujiang, is currently running and undergoing the stage of equipment debugging and technology development.
The lead plant in Huko includes all processing operations, starting from the drying of the charge and its melting in a kiln and ending with the utilization of rich sulfur dioxide gases in sulfuric acid production and the production of refined lead.
The technological scheme provides for the complete processing of lead- and zinc-containing industrial products at the KIVTSEtny complex.
The only solid waste is blown slag with a low content of non-ferrous metals. The use of a closed water cycle and the complete utilization of sulfur dioxide gases in sulfuric acid production minimizes the amount of harmful wastewater from the complex and the release of toxic substances into the atmosphere. In this regard, it is assumed that the lead-zinc complex of Jiangxi Copper Lead and Zinc Metal Co. will be one of the most environmentally friendly metallurgical plants of this profile in China.
Currently, construction has been completed in China and another high-carbon complex is ready for launch at the modernized lead plant of Zhuzhou Smelter Group Co.
The construction of factories for high-speed steel technology by two leading metallurgical companies in China after a 10-year hiatus on its demand in the global market allows us to express confidence that new contracts will be signed for the design and construction of plants using Kazakh technology with other foreign companies.
The universal ("omnivorous") nature of the KIVCET process in relation to the range of compositions of processed lead-containing raw materials allows us to speak of it as a lead smelting technology that has no worthy competitors in the development of integrated lead-copper–zinc metallurgical complexes, and the successful experience of implementing the KIVCET process abroad makes it recommended for efficient, environmentally friendly processing of lead-containing raw materials in Kazakhstan..
Ushakov N.N., Shumsky V.A., Chalenko V.V.
Vniitsvetmet, Ust-Kamenogorsk
Kursiv newspaper, No. 35 (461), SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
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