Metso’s $210m Asian copper smelter: process design and SO₂ control notes for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
Metso has secured a ~€180 million ($210 million) contract to supply engineering and key process equipment for a new primary copper smelter complex in Asia designed to produce 300,000 t/y of copper cathodes and 1.1 Mt/y of sulphuric acid. The scope covers core smelting and off-gas handling technology, positioning the plant for high-acid capture rates critical for SO₂ emissions control. For project teams, the scale implies substantial concentrate throughput and significant integration requirements with downstream acid and cathode handling infrastructure.
Technical Brief
- Contract scope explicitly limited to engineering and key process equipment, not full EPC delivery.
- High-acid capture design requires tight integration between smelter off-gas trains and acid plant units.
- Long-lead process equipment package suggests early lock-in of furnace, converter and gas-cleaning designs.
- Scale and complexity indicate need for substantial local construction, utilities and materials-handling interfaces beyond Metso’s package.
Our Take
Metso’s ~$210 million copper and sulphuric acid smelter order in Asia sits alongside recent copper work for Almalyk MMC in Uzbekistan and Grupo Mexico’s La Caridad mine, signalling that copper is currently one of Metso’s most active commodities in our mining project database.
Combined with the new rubber products plant in Quzhou, China, this Asian smelter contract suggests Metso is deepening its regional footprint not just in concentrator equipment but across the full copper value chain, from comminution through to smelting and acid handling.
Within the 1,022 tag-matched ‘Projects’ and ‘Contract Award’ pieces in our coverage, few single orders for copper processing equipment approach the €180 million scale, implying this award will likely be a reference project for Metso in future tenders for large integrated smelter–acid plants.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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