Mitsubishi Monitor 0206 GREEN DIAMONDS

A smelting process developed by Mitsubishi Materials is the world's cleanest and most energy-efficient way to refine copper. Copper and gold were the first metals that humans used. And the basic process of copper smelting changed little for thousands of years. Smelting copper was labor-intensive, it consumed massive amounts of energy and it was an environmental nightmare.
Mitsubishi Metal--a forerunner of Mitsubishi Materials--began work in the 1950s on technology for alleviating the traditional drawbacks of copper smelting. The result of that work was the Mitsubishi Process for continuous smelting. Mitsubishi Materials put that technology to work at large smelters in Japan and Indonesia, and it has licensed the technology to copper producers in Australia, Canada and the Republic of Korea.


	Gravity alone draws the copper ore downward through the three furnaces in a sealed, continuous flow.

Henry Ford's conveyor line revolutionized manufacturing by linking the processes of vehicle assembly in a continuous flow. In the same way, the Mitsubishi Process revolutionized copper smelting by arranging work in a continuous flow.
   Copper smelting in the 1950s was a classic example of batch processing. A batch of ore went into a smelting process, then into a converting furnace and finally into an anode furnace. Engineers at Mitsubishi Metal (now Mitsubishi Materials) saw that they could achieve labor and energy savings and reduce environmental impact by integrating those processes in a single, continuous flow.
   Other copper producers were working on the same problem, but none of them succeeded. Most of them attempted to integrate all the processes in a single furnace. In contrast, Mitsubishi Metal retained multiple furnaces but devised a continuous flow of material all the way through the furnaces.
   The company put its revolutionary technology to work in a small, semicommercial smelter in the 1960s, and it incorporated the technology in a full-scale smelter in the 1970s. Smelters based on elements of the Mitsubishi Process began operation in Canada in 1981, the Republic of Korea in 1998, Indonesia in 1999 and Australia in 2000.


The sulfur oxides and dust from all that excitement stay inside the furnaces with the Mitsubishi Process.

Efficient, immaculate
Of all the benefits of the Mitsubishi Process, its reduction of the environmental impact of smelting is the most valuable. Emissions of sulfur oxides and dust are a notorious environmental demerit of traditional copper smelting. Those emissions occur mainly when the furnaces are opened to transfer batches of material to the next stages in processing.
The Mitsubishi Process routes material through the series of furnaces via enclosed launders. So hardly any gas or dust escapes. The superior energy efficiency of the Mitsubishi Process also is an important environmental benefit.

A plant for the 21st century
Here is what a leading authority has to say about the Mitsubishi Process at Mitsubishi Materials' new smelter in Gresik, Indonesia. Herbert H. Kellogg, a professor emeritus at New York's Columbia University, is renowned for his work in the thermodynamics of smelting. The following comments are from a letter by Professor Kellogg that appeared in the November 2000 issue of the academic journal JOM .
"It has been my privilege to visit about 25 copper plants, worldwide, over the years and to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the old and new processes. My visit to the copper plant at Gresik, Indonesia, provided a fitting climax to those earlier visits."
"I have no hesitation in describing the Gresik plant as the finest copper plant I have ever seen. The continuous operation makes possible state-of-the-art environmental control and worker health and safety. Energy and metallurgical efficiency are both high. Truly, this is a plant for the 21st century."

This plant that employs the Mitsubishi Process in the Republic of Korea lights up the night.