Yunnan Smelter (Yunnan copper Co., Ltd.), built in early 1960s, is mainly engaged in smelting of copper concentrate with electric furnace. There had been problems since putting into operation, such as high energy consumption, poor utilization of SO₂, serious environmental pollution and high operating cost. By persistent technical upgrading and innovation in the past two decades, especially the introduction of the advanced oxygen-enriched top-blown bath smelting to replace the electric furnace smelting, the enterprise has been enhanced rapidly. It is expected that by 2002 the smelter will become one of China´s three major copper enterprises, and may rank among the top twenty copper producers in the world. By that time the “three waste” disposal will meet the environment requirements, hence clean production will be realized in the plant, and electric power consumption for blister copper will drop from 2314 kWh/t to 1542 kWh/t and, accordingly, the operating cost will be lowered greatly.