Sulphuric Acid News

UNITED STATES

Musk focuses on nickel at ‘battery day’

In early October Tesla held a ‘battery day’ event at its headquarters in Fremont, California. Speaking at the event, company founder and CEO Elon Musk outlined his vision for the electric car industry over the coming decades, and spoke particularly to his ambitions for the nickel industry. He had already called for more mining of nickel earlier in the year, and has said that Tesla is developing cathodes that will contain higher nickel and no cobalt. The latter comes after a lawsuit against Tesla and several other high-tech US firms for allegedly supporting human rights violations by buying cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Musk echoed the potential ‘reputational risk’ for the nickel market and called for more sustainable nickel production, dangling the prospect of a “giant contract” with any miners that could produce nickel in an “environmentally sensitive way.” Tesla is reportedly in discussions with Vale and BHP as well as the Indonesian government concerning potential investments in nickel production.

BHP has said that it is committed to a 30% reduction in its carbon emissions by 2030 and plans to implement these changes by securing renewable power contracts for its operations, installing steam generators and solar power across its nickel operations, as well as removing 100% of SO2 emissions at its Nickel West operations at Kalgoorlie by 2024 and converting them to sulphuric acid.

Glencore has also indicated that it is in talks with car manufactures and battery makers about nickel. The company already supplies BMW with cobalt from its Murrin Murrin nickel-cobalt mine in Australia.

BRAZIL

US investment in nickel leaching project

The US International Development Finance Corp (DFC) has made a $25 million investment into TechMet Ltd, a private investment company with a portfolio of projects that produce, process and recycle metals tied to the production of electric vehicles (EVs), renewable energy systems and energy storage. The funds will be used to bring to commercial production one of TechMet’s core investments, Brazilian Nickel Plc, which will be a low-cost nickel-cobalt producer in Piaui, in north-eastern Brazil, it said.

Piauí is a nickel laterite heap leaching project, aiming at an initial production of 10,000 t/a of nickel, potentially rising to 25,000 t/a, with first production beginning in 2022. Brazilian Nickel has previously completed a large-scale demonstration of the heap leaching, purification and recovery of nickel and cobalt from the Piauí ore. The investment will be aimed at producing nickel and cobalt for the electric vehicle market in the US.

Brian Menell, Chairman and CEO of TechMet, said: “We are very pleased to have secured this funding and support from DFC, which enables Brazilian Nickel Plc to begin the commercial production of nickel and cobalt products used in the production of EV batteries. Having this level of US support is a great endorsement of TechMet’s team and strategy.”

Brazilian Nickel figures indicate that production of 10,000 t/a of nickel would consume around 400 kg of sulphuric acid per tonne of ore processed, or around 500,000 t/a of acid, which would probably be supplied via a sulphur burning plant.

Jervois to buy nickel/cobalt leaching plant

Jervois Mining Ltd, a cobalt mining company with assets in Idaho, Uganda, and Australia, has said that it will acquire 100% of the Sao Miguel Paulista (SMP) nickel and cobalt refinery in Sao Paulo State from Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio, for $22.5 million. The SMP Refinery has a production capacity of 25,000 t/a of refined nickel and 2,000 t/a of cobalt via a sulphuric acid leach and SX/EW recovery. The site was placed on care and maintenance in 2016.

Jervois says that it will use the SMP site to refine concentrate from its new Idaho operation, and return the cobalt metal to the United States. It will initially lease the site from Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio while a feasibility study is conducted on a restart, with a final closure on purchase expected – assuming all goes well – by December 2021. Jervois has outlined three potential operating scenarios so far; either processing Idaho Cobalt Operations (ICO) concentrate only, producing 2,000 t/a of refined cobalt; processing ICO concentrate and cobalt hydroxide, generating: 8,000 t/a of refined cobalt; and a mixed hydroxide nickel/cobalt plan which would generate 10,000 t/a of refined nickel and 2,300 t/a of refined cobalt.

INDONESIA

New state battery firm will look to HPAL

Mining Industry Indonesia (MIND ID) chief executive Orias Petrus Moedak says that Indonesia is assembling a a new state-owned joint venture to make batteries for electric vehicles. Speaking to an industry webinar, Moedak said that the new venture, Indonesia Battery Holding, would be a joint venture between mining companies MIND ID and Aneka Tambang (ANTAM), utility company Perusahan Listrik Negara (PLN) and state oil company Pertamina. The company would aim to cover the full production chain, from mining to producing chemicals and minerals for batteries to making the units themselves, as well as recycling old batteries, Orias said. Reuters reports that Orias has also indicated that state mining company ANTAM will also work on related projects including high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) and rotary kiln electric furnace (RKEF) smelter projects valued at $2–3 billion. Indonesia is already looking at up to six HPAL projects, with PT Halmahera Persada Lygend, PT Adhikara Cipta Mulia, PT Smelter Nikel Indonesia, PT Vale Indonesia, PT Huayue, and PT QMB all with projects under active development.

CANADA

Joint venture proposal for Blawn Mountain

SOPerior Fertilizer Corp. says that it has signed a letter of intent with an unnamed other party to form a joint venture for the development of the 15,000 acre Blawn Mountain mining lease located in Utah, and the financing and construction of an alunite ore processing plant at the site. The ore will be processed to yield alumina, potassium sulphate (‘sulphate of potash’ or SOP) and sulphuric acid. For every tonne of SOP produced, approximately 2 tonnes of alumina and 2.15 tonnes of sulphuric acid are co-produced, according to the company. The project has permits to produce up to 645,000 t/a of SOP, which would generate 1.4 million t/a of sulphuric acid, which SOPerior says would be “used onsite in the processing of other valuable mineral deposits”.

AUSTRALIA

BHP scraps Olympic Dam expansion

BHP has abandoned its proposed $3.7 billion Brownfields Expansion at Olympic Dam in favour of a number of smaller projects to improve reliability and increase capacity. The project planned to increase copper output at Olympic Dam from 200,000 t/a to up to 300,000 t/a, as well as boosting gold, silver and uranium production. However, the results of a study into the expansion have found that copper resources in the Southern Mine Area are more structurally complex, and the higher-grade zones less continuous, than previously thought. The company says that it will instead focus on targeted debottlenecking investments, plant upgrades and modernisation of infrastructure to increase efficiency and production.

DENMARK

Topsoe to refocus its strategy

Haldor Topsoe is reorganising in order to pursue a new strategic direction. As part of its new focus, the company is aiming to be recognised as the global leader in carbon emission reduction technologies by 2024. It is also aiming to be more customer facing, with a strong commercial set-up, effective production, and innovation to deliver technologies demanded by the market.

“We have designed an organisation with a clear focus on accelerating the development of carbon-neutral technologies, and it will be funded by continued delivery of Topsoe’s globally leading solutions for energy-efficient production of conventional fuels and chemicals,” said Roeland Baan, CEO of Haldor Topsoe. “This transformation has a very strong foundation in our exceptional R&D capabilities, world-leading technologies, and a long standing dedication to making a positive difference in the world by perfecting chemistry.

Many employees will get new responsibilities as departments and business areas are refocused to deliver on the vision, which will also result in approximately 200 redundancies.

“It is never easy to let talented employees go. I want to thank them all for being part of making Topsoe a success,” said Baan. “With our new organization in place, I am confident that Topsoe has come closer to taking a decisive role globally. The world is at a climate crossroads, and Topsoe delivers technologies that target some of the most pressing challenges. Now, we have taken the first step on a very ambitious journey defined by our new vision, and we have what it takes to reach our goal.”

The new organization will be effective from November 1st, 2020.

RUSSIA

PhosAgro reports increased sales and production

In its 3Q 2020 results presentation, PhosAgro, said that it had increased fertilizer sales by 10% in the nine months to September on the same period in 2019. Total fertilizer production increased by almost 5% to 7.5 million tonnes, due to the ongoing modernisation of production facilities and efficiency improvements achieved over the year.

Sulphuric acid production increased by 11.4% year on year to 5.1 million t/a to the end of September, due to the beginning of operations at a new 1.1 million t/a sulphuric acid production unit at Cherepovets, Russia, in the middle of 1Q20. Ammonium sulphate production at Cherepovets increased to its full capacity of 300,000 t/a.

Andrey Guryev, CEO of PhosArgo, said: “Despite some improvement in the epidemiological situation in the summer period, we have kept in place the comprehensive prevention measures that were introduced when the first signs of the pandemic appeared. As a result, in the face of a new wave of coronavirus infections in Russia and globally, PhosAgro is fully prepared to continue operating at full capacity, following effective protocols to protect its personnel and the residents of the regions of where it operates.”

WORLD

Copper production to increase in 2021

The International Copper Study Group (ICSG) has released its copper market forecast for 2020-21 and says that 2020 will mark the second consecutive year of falling world copper mine production, with output dropping 1.5% in 2020 after a 0.2% fall in 2019. However, it forecasts that 2021 will see mined copper output grow by 4.5%. The decline in 2019 was mainly due to operational issues, especially in Indonesia, ICGS said, while this year’s drop is due primarily to temporary mine closures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, most notably in Peru. Lower copper production in 2020, however, will be partially offset by additional output from newly commissioned mines, ICGS said, including Russian Copper Company’s Tominskoye mine and the Deziwa copper-cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which went into production in January. Deziwa is a joint-venture between the DRC’s state-owned Gecamines and China Nonferrous Metal Mining Company.

“Additional output from new projects, including Tominskoye and Deziwa, coupled with that from ramp-up mines such as Cobre de Panama and a significant recovery in Indonesian output will partially offset the reductions resulting from the pandemic,” the group said in a statement. Looking ahead to 2021, it said, “output is expected to benefit from a recovery from the constrained operating levels of 2020 and increased supply resulting from the ramp-up of recently commissioned mines and expansions as well as from the planned start-up of larger projects including Kamoa Kakula, the Spence sulphide project and Lone Star.”

Refined copper production is however expected to increase this year, by 1.5%, after a stagnant 2019, and will see similar growth in 2021, according to ICSG. “A significant recovery in Chilean and Zambian output is forecast following temporary shutdowns for smelter upgrades in 2019,” it said. “In addition, a strong recovery is anticipated in Japan and a number of EU countries following a series of smelter maintenances in 2019. Electrowinning production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is also expected to continue to increase.”

ICSG forecasts global copper demand (excluding China) will decline by 9% in 2020, mainly due to pandemic-related lockdowns. The group said that this is due to anticipated falls in demand of 8% and 6% in the European Union and the United States, respectively, and significant reductions in India, Japan, and several countries in Southeast Asia. It forecasts global copper demand excluding China in 2021 will rise to one percent. ICSG estimates a deficit of about 50,000 tonnes of copper this year and a surplus of about 70,000 tonnes in 2021.