Recovery of Fe–Cu alloys from copper slag

Carbon steels have less than 0.02% copper and have low atmospheric corrosion resistance. The addition of at least 0.20, wt% Cu improves this property. Also, 0.8, wt% Cu in steel shows a hardening potential for developing high strength corrosion resistant steels. Copper slags containing 42–45% of iron, silica and minor amounts of copper were used for producing Fe–Cu alloys by reducing the oxides contained in the slag to obtain a Fe-0.84, wt% Cu alloy, which could be suitable as feeding material to manufacture a corrosion resistance steel, and also would be an alternative for minimizing the copper industry’s environmental impact, and to introduce the application of the Circular Economy concept to the natural resources exploitation, especially in countries where their economy is strongly based in mining and metallurgical extraction.