Comparison of Environmental Performance of Modern Copper Smelting Technologies

The fight against climate change has emphasized the importance of understanding the environmental performance of metal production technologies. This is especially true for copper whose consumption will increase significantly due to electrification and, therefore, understanding the associated footprint becomes essential. This study uses simulation-based life cycle assessment (LCA) together with a commercial flowsheet simulation program to compare several copper smelting technologies against each other when producing metallic blister copper from sulfide copper ore.