Glencore’s CCR refinery: an overview of how copper is made, including copper refining & processing

Glencore’s Canadian Copper Refinery (CCR) is a copper refining and copper processing plant in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. It’s been in operation since 1931 and was previously part of Xstrata Canada.

CCR refinery’s three main products are copper cathodes, anode copper and anode slime. The copper refinery plant takes copper anodes, with an average purity of 98%, and processes them to remove precious metals and other compounds. This produces copper cathodes: copper sheets with a purity of around 99.99%.

Our core copper processing activity is accomplished using electro-refining, which involves immersing the crude anode copper in electrolyte tanks containing sulphuric acid and dissolved copper, and passing an electric current through them.

The spent anode copper remaining after the copper refining process is melted down to create new anodes, allowing us to recover their full value.

The anode slime produced by this process is treated, along with anode slime from other copper refineries around the world, as CCR has recognised expertise in this treatment. Autoclaves reclaim copper, nickel and tellurium, then silver and gold are extracted and formed into very high quality ingots. Platinum and palladium are extracted in powered form and supplied to other refineries for processing.

As Glencore places great value in innovation, CCR has developed unique expertise, with many advanced processes invented by our specialists.

You can find out more about CCR refinery at http://www.affinerieccr.ca.

Видео Glencore’s CCR refinery: an overview of how copper is made, including copper refining & processing канала Glencore