Harima Smelter was established in July 1964 and its operation was commenced in May 1966 with a production capacity of 3,000 t/M of Zn and 1,500 t/M of Pb introducing the Imperial Smelting Process (ISP).
The plant consists of sinter machine, IS furnace, zinc casting machine, lead refinery, cadmium refinery, sulfuric acid plant and indium recovery. The production capacity has been increased by various improvements and developments. In 1996 IS furnace was renewed and enlarged. In 1998 the condenser of IS furnace was renewed. In 2001 the oxygen enrichment of sinter operation was started. In 2004 the commutator of Pb electrolytic-refining was renewed and enlarged. The current production capacity is 8,500 t/M of Zn and 2,800 t/M of Pb.
In 2006 the plant of indium recovery from raw materials and scraps was newly-built, and its production capacity is 6 t/M.
The recent lead operation and some experiments for lead smelting in Kosaka are described in this paper.
