Research status of arsenic and antimony removal in copper refining process

The crude copper from matte smelting contains certain impurities that have different influence on the industrial properties of copper. Hence the crude copper needs to be refined. In order to further improve the quality of cathode copper and produce copper products that meet the market demands, effective treatment of harmful impurities in the aspects of fire process and electrolysis refining has become a research focus of domestic and foreign experts and scholars. The methods of treating arsenic and antimony by fire refining include: oxidative volatilization, basic slag making, vacuum refining, FRHC technology, etc. Electrolytic refining processes of arsenic and antimony include: electrodeposition, solvent extraction, adsorption, ion exchange and self-purification of electrolyte. The paper reviewed the treatment methods of arsenic and antimony in fire and electrolysis refining and looked ahead in order to provide help for the future research on treating impurities in copper by fire.