Reducing Specific Energy to Shrink the Carbon Footprint in a Copper Electrowinning Facility

Various technologies and strategies to reduce specific energy consumption are examined. Results include 16 harvest cycles for 30 cells totalling 62,400 cathodes with a weight of 2,500 Tons. The industrial site was Zaldivar, a Barrick mining operation located at 175 km Southeast from Antofagasta, Chile. The production averages 140,000 Ton/year of copper cathodes. With the technologies tested in this work, 14 thousand Megawatt-hour and corresponding 14 thousand tons of CO₂ will be saved per year.