JSC “Russian Copper Company”, Ekaterinburg, Russia:

Yu. A. Korol, Vice-President, e-mail: tsvetmet@rudmet.ru

Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Eltsin, Ekaterinburg, Russia:
S. S. Naboychenko, Head of the Department of Metallurgy of Non-ferrous Metals

PJSC “Yuzhuralnikel Combinate”, Orsk, Russia:
S. V. Gulyaev, Chief Engineer

Current trends observed in recent years in the consumption of nickel and cobalt and the rising prices for these metals economically substantiate the production of nickel from oxidized nickel ores by a scheme of melting to matte — converting to Feinstein. The main disadvantage of converters functioning on nickel-containing materials is a limited service life of the lining — 7–12 days, which leads to a significant increase in production costs. At Yuzhuralnikel Combinate, air tunnels of a new design were developed and implemented. They ensure the supply of oxygen-containing blast into the melt in a protective layer from neutral gas (nitrogen). The core of the protective mechanism of tuyeres in protective shells (TPS) with neutral gas is the effect of displacement of the blast from the refractory lining of the converter due to the high velocity and blowing pressure of the protective medium, which excludes the interaction of blast oxygen with the melt near the tuyere belt. At 13 converters of the Yuzhuralnikel Combinate, the air was fed into the melt through a tube with an outer diameter of 48 mm. The annular gap of 2 mm for supplying nitrogen is provided by a pipe with an external diameter of 60 mm. This improvement allowed increasing the campaign of converters in the collection and deployment of Feinstein from 5–8 to 16–34 days, the deployment of autoclave mass — from 13–15 to 22–39 days, and the depletion of converter slag from 50 to 70 days. The possibility of using TPS on both nickel and copper and copper-nickel converters is shown for any enrichment of blasting with oxygen. In this case, the conversion campaign can be extended if there are enough cold additives.

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