Lurgi: Radial Flow Scrubbers (8) - Gas Cooling Tower (4) - 1st Stage WESP (5) - 2nd Stage WESP (5)

Atlantic Copper is one of the world's most important producers of copper. Thanks to investments and the rationalization of our productive process, we are capable of producing approximately 310,000 MT of copper anodes, 260,000 MT of which are refined into copper cathodes with a copper content of more than 99.99%; the main by-products are sulfuric acid (around 1 million MT) and electrolytic slimes rich in gold ( 25 MT) and silver ( 75 MT) . The principal raw material is copper concentrate which Atlantic Copper receives from mines, smelting approximately one million MT.
Atlantic Copper is the largest producer in Spain (and the second in Europe ) of this raw material, which is so important for the fertilizer industry and other branches of the chemical industry.
All of the SO₂ produced during the process of concentrates smelting is treated in order to transform it into sulfuric acid.
Sulfuric acid is obtained in the three Acid Plants. The system used is by contact with catalysts of vanadium and caesium pentoxide. The three plants include double absorption and double contact technology, allowing a sulfur recovery of more than 99.8%.
The sulfuric acid is stored and then distributed either by homologated pipeline or by tanker trucks .

The terminal includes the following installations:

•  One storage tank of 12,000 MT.
•  Railway spur to unload tank cars.
•  Installation for loading / unloading trucks.
•  Wharf for loading and unloading ships.

The weak acid originating from the Acid Plants is used to produce artificial gypsum, and Atlantic Copper produces some 240 tons per day. This product is used in construction, cement plants, for the reinforcing and sealing of waste dumps, etc.

October 2, 2009 - Spain's Atlantic Copper, part of Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., has raised production at its Huelva smelter by 10-15 percent since the beginning of August, it said on Friday.  A company official said the increase would raise the smelter's output to 300,000 tonnes per year of copper anodes and was due to improvements in efficiency and using more oxygen in the furnace.  Anodes are basic copper blocks that are later refined.  Encouraged by higher prices, some metal producers have started to reverse earlier cutbacks and project delays, prompted around mid-2008 by plunging demand.  The official added that Atlantic Copper was selling all the sulphuric acid produced by the smelter, despite a leading client closing a plant in the southwestern port of Huelva.  "We are placing all of our acid," the official said.  Fertiliser maker Fertiberia used to buy 30 percent of the 1 million tonnes of sulphuric acid -- a by-product of copper smelting -- produced annually in Huelva.  Spanish farmers say they have used a lot less fertiliser this year because a collapse in grain prices GRAES01 has forced them to cut back on production costs.   The official added that Atlantic had invested 20 million euros ($29 million) in the past two years in extending port facilities to handle acid.  Clients included parent company Freeport's installations in the Americas, a net importer of sulphuric acid produced in Europe and Asia.  Last year, Atlantic Copper said it sold about 300,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid a year on the spot market, which it hoped to raise to 500,000 a year in 2009 and 2010.  Some copper and zinc smelters were forced to cut their output earlier this year because they ran out of space to store hazardous sulphuric acid in the face of poor demand for the by-product.  However, some plants have returned to full production due to improvements in the sulphuric acid market.

September 24, 2009 - Atlantic Copper can offload the sulphuric acid produced by its copper smelter even though Fertiberia, a Spanish fertiliser company and a major consumer of its by-product, has shut its plant in Huelva, Spain, according to a company official. Concerns have mounted about how the Spanish smelter has been getting rid of its sulphuric acid after Fertiberia shut one of its fertiliser plants in Huelva, where the Spanish producer has its own plant. “We’re placing all our sulphuric acid,” the official said. Fertiberia shut its plant several months ago, although there is talk the the company is looking to reopen it, according to market sources. About 30% of Atlantic Copper’s sulphuric acid output, equivalent to 300,000 tpy, was feeding Fertiberia before the closure, with the rest being shipped to the Americas, where Freeport uses acid for leaching, and to Europe, the Mediterranean and Morocco. There is a strong fertiliser industry in Morocco, market participants said.