Comparative steam distillation based digestion of complex inorganic copper concentrates samples followed by ion chromatographic determination of halogens

•An enclosed steam distillation based extraction of F & Cl from copper concentrates.•An accurate and eco-friendly method is proposed for copper concentrates analysis.•Various parameters of steam distillation (SD) based extraction were optimized.•Better accuracy and precision of F & Cl obtained compared to conventional SD unit.