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, totaling 62 400 cathodes with a weight of 2500 ton. The industrial site was Zaldivar, which is 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 paper, 14 000 MWh and corresponding 14 000 ton of CO
₂
will be saved per year.