A Review on Integrating E-Waste Recycling in Flash and Bath Copper Smelting Operations

Copper is an essential metal for growth and modernization of the world economy. It is extensively used in infrastructure, construction, transportation, and equipment manufacturing. As the quality of copper deposits across the world is depleting and the time and cost to develop new projects are increasing, the required primary supply to meet the future demand is being challenged. Although a major portion of the copper demand will still be filled by the primary smelting of concentrates, the copper recycling will play a crucial role in filling the supply gap. Furthermore, there is a significant risk of a supply crisis of critical metals, which has made the recycling of secondary resources ever more important, especially the E-Waste material. The pyrometallurgical process continues to be a dominant route for both primary and secondary production of copper. The current work explores the opportunities and challenges of E-Waste recycling via a pyrometallurgical route to recover copper and critical metals. The study includes a comparison between the modern smelting technologies to assess their flexibilities of treating the E-Waste material. In particular, the two options of E-Waste treatments have been explored: (1) injecting E-Waste directly into primary production line and (2) production of black copper followed by its refining. The current review shows that both options require a proper management of refractory oxides and equilibrium oxygen potential for economic recoveries of copper and other critical metals.