Manhès-David converter

The Manhès-David process is a refining process of the copper mattes, invented in 1880 by the French industrialist Pierre Manhès and his engineer Paul David^[]. Inspired by the Bessemer process, it consists of the use of a converter to oxidise with air the undesirable chemical elements (mainly iron and sulfur) contained in the matte, to transform it into copper.

The quantity of the elements to be oxidized, as well as the low heat produced by the chemical reactions, lead to drastics modifications of the converter. Manhès and David designed it as a horizontal cylinder, with nozzles aligned from one end to the other. A few years later, the Americans engineers William H. Peirce and Elias Anton Cappelen Smith lined it with basic refractory materials, much more durable than that used by the French inventors. While this improvement does not alter the principles of the process, it eases its widespread use, accelerating the switchover of copper production from the United Kingdom to the United States.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Pierce-Smith converters^[] refines 90 % of the copper mattes and is used in 60 % of the nickel extracted. This converter, like the addition of pure oxygen, the automation of the running, the treatment of smoke and the increasing size of the tools ensured the durability of the Manhès-David process, even if modern tools have little relationship with their ancestors.

A mixture of copper and iron sulfides referred to as matte is treated in converters to oxidize iron in the first stage, and oxidize copper in the second stage. In the first stage oxygen enriched air is blown through the tuyeres to partially convert metal sulfides to oxides:

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