IsaKidd refining technology

The IsaKidd Technology is a copper electrorefining and electrowinning technology that was developed independently by Copper Refineries Proprietary Limited (“CRL”), a Townsville, Queensland subsidiary of MIM Holdings Limited (which is now part of the Glencore Xstrata group of companies), and at the Falconbridge Limited (“Falconbridge”) now-dismantled Kidd Creek refinery that was at Timmins, Ontario. It is based around the use of reusable cathode starter sheets for copper electrorefining and the automated stripping of the deposited “cathode copper” from them.

The current IsaKidd technology represents the merger of the copper refining technologies developed by the two different organisations. The initial Isa Process development in the late 1970s, with its reusable stainless-steel cathode starter sheets, represented an advance on the previous technology of single-use starter sheets of pure copper, the production of which was a labour-intensive process.

The production of the single-use starter sheets involved laying down a sheet of copper by electrolysis on each side of a “mother plate”. Generating the sheet took a day, and thousands of sheets could be needed every day. Originally, the copper starter sheets were separated from the mother plate manually, but over time the process was automated. In addition, limitations associated with the use of copper starter sheets meant that it was difficult to meet the purity specifications of some new copper applications that were, in the 1970s and 1980s, demanding higher quality copper.

The development of the Isa Process tank house technology at CRL eliminated the whole process and cost of producing the starter sheets by using stainless-steel permanent cathodes. It also included substantial automation of the process of inserting the permanent cathodes into the electrolytic cells and their subsequent removal and stripping of the sheets of deposited cathode copper. The labour force required to operate a refinery using the IsaKidd technology has been estimated at 60–70% less of that required for refineries using starter sheets.

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Wikipedia