Abstract

It summarizes the current state of Chilean copper smelters from an environmental, major nation-to-global focus approach, current technologies for treating copper sulphurized minerals through pyrometallurgical treatments generate large amounts of pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, arsenic and other heavy metals that are present in smelters fumes. Due to the depletion of copper resources, Chilean copper deposits have lower laws and have higher amounts of arsenic, this is a problem for the installation of new pyrometallurgical plants in Chile and is also a challenge for foundries that were already in operation, along with increasingly stringent government laws creating a complex environment for such copper smelters.