Sulphuric Acid News

Sulphuric Acid News

ZAMBIA

FQM to convert acid plant to smelter off-gas

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. has contracted with MECS, Inc. (MECS), a subsidiary of Elessent Clean Technologies, for the Kansanshi smelter expansion at the Kansanshi mine at Solwezi. MECS’ scope of work will include a redesign of the existing sulphur-burning sulphuric acid plant into a copper smelter off-gas recovery sulphuric acid plant. This transition to a copper smelter off-gas recovery acid plant will enable First Quantum to reduce emissions from the existing copper smelter, increase production at the mine, and supply more copper to the global market, which will enable the adoption of greener technologies. MECS’ design for First Quantum incorporates proprietary technologies such as MECS® catalyst for low emissions and high conversion, Brink® mist eliminators, ZeCor® alloy towers and pump tank and UniFlo® acid distributor technology for operational reliability and efficiency.

“Supporting the Kansanshi smelter expansion with First Quantum and the Kansanshi mine has been an exciting opportunity. Not only is MECS helping to extend the life of the mine and optimize operations, but we are also in a unique position to help make a tremendously positive impact on the environment by helping reduce emissions,” said Eli Ben-Shoshan, CEO, Elessent. Startup of the smelter expansion is expected to take place in 2025.

Copper/cobalt slag project

South African metals processing business Jubilee Metals Group has been awarded a copper slag project that will be executed in joint venture collaboration Mopani Copper Mines of Zambia. The Mufulira slag project will process 13 million tonnes of historical slag, estimated to contain 0.7% copper and 0.27% cobalt, in addition to current slag production. Jubilee will design, implement and operate the new processing facility and having the first right to fund the implementation of the project in collaboration with Mopani. Mufulira is a copper belt town located about 40 km from Kitwe. Its copper deposits have been mined over many years, with Mopani owning the Mufulira smelter, where concentrates are blended with toll concentrates to produce copper anodes containing 99.6% copper.

Zambia aims to lift copper output to 3 million t/a, and the slag project is seen as forming part of a greater waste recovery initiative in Zambia to help achieve that mission. Jubilee expects to implement the project in two phases, prioritising the quickto-process initial slag material, while over the coming six-month period simultaneously completing a process review of the more complex slags. As part of an environmental protection commitment, the upgraded Mufulira smelter is equipped with two acid plants that convert up to 95% of the sulphur dioxide emitted into sulphuric acid.

GERMANY

Aurubis and Metso working on decarbonisation of copper smelter

Aurubis AG says that it will invest in hydrogen-ready anode furnaces at their Hamburg copper processing plant. The company will use complete hydrogen-ready Outotec Anode Furnaces with hoods and auxiliary equipment, designed by Metso, for the anode refining process. Close collaboration with Aurubis was key in designing the hydrogen-ready furnace by Metso, a first in the copper industry. Design input was based on full-scale hydrogen testing done at the Aurubis plant in 2021. The order, the value of which is not disclosed, was booked in Metals’ first-half 2023 orders received.

Aurubis expects the new technology in copper production to provide potential savings of 5,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. The Hamburg plant will be one of the first copper smelters in the world to use hydrogen instead of natural gas for the reduction process in its anode furnaces.

INDIA

Coromandel acid plant commissioned

Coromandel International has commissioned a sulphuric acid plant at its fertiliser complex in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The new plant is part of a strategy of backward integration of capabilities to drive greater self-sufficiency in operations, and is the third at the complex in the port city. It has a capacity of 1,650 t/d and has been developed at an investment cost of and set up with an investment of $48 million, and brings Coromandel’s sulphuric acid capacity to 1.1 million t/a from its previous 600,000 t/a. The new sulphuric acid plant has been commissioned in a record time of 18 months, and is designed to meet the lowest emission standards globally. The steam generated from the facility will be used for captive power generation. A seawater desalination plant has also been set up to meet additional water requirements. Coromandel said it has partnered with Veolia Water Technology and Solutions for the desalination facility.

India is the third largest importer of sulphuric acid globally, importing nearly 2.0 million t/a. With the commissioning of the new plant, the country’s import dependence will go down by 25-30%, Coromandel said, reiterating that it will continue to improve its raw material self-sufficiency and augment fertiliser availability for the farming community. The company has a production capacity of 3.5 million tonnes per annum of complex fertilisers.

Greenfield copper facility to start operations from March

The Adani Group’s $1.1 billion greenfield copper facility in Gujarat’s Mundra will start operations in March 2024 and mark the group’s entry into the industry, according to a recent company statement. Kutch Copper is a greenfield refinery project with an annual capacity of 1.0 million tonnes. The project, which will be completed in two phases, aims to produce copper cathodes and rods, along with byproducts like gold, silver, nickel, and selenium. The integrated complex will also produce sulphuric acid for fertilisers, detergents, pharmaceuticals, paper and sugar bleaching, water treatment, and other industries, the company said.

Kutch Copper will source raw material from Latin America to help ensure an effective national supply chain for India’s anticipated future supplies of copper. It will also reduce dependency on the only domestic source for copper, Hindalco, and can potentially meet up to half of demand. Many major acid consumers in the country are based along the Gujarat coast, and they are also set to benefit from the copper unit, the company said.

PORTUGAL

New copper and zinc concentrator

Almina Minas do Alentejo is proceeding with preparations to upgrade its copper and zinc concentrator at the Almina mine in Aljustrel, in the Iberian pyrite belt. The company placed an order with Metso as the key equipment supplier for this project in the first quarter of 2023. Metso has now completed the basic engineering of the grinding island. Delivery of the concentrator plant equipment will take place around the end of the second quarter in 2024, with the project expected to be commissioning by the end of the first quarter of 2025.

“Collaboration between Almina Minas do Alentejo S.A and Metso is strong. We are excited to continue working with Almina on this project, for which they selected us to supply the grinding island, ultra-fine grinding technology, as well as flotation, filtration, and thickening equipment, as well as all slurry pumps. The deliveries will be fast as the plant will be built already within the next 24 months,” explains Saso Kitanoski, President for Metso’s Europe Market Area.

UNITED STATES

Acid catalyst price hike

Elessent Clean Technologies has announced a global price increase of $1.40/litre for its caesium-promoted MECS® sulfuric acid catalyst products and $0.40/litre for all other sulfuric acid catalyst products. Additional charges may apply for freight, near-term delivery and specialty product grades. Subject to the terms of applicable contracts, the new pricing will take effect immediately.

KAZAKHSTAN

New copper concentrator for Kazakhstan

Metso has signed a contract for the delivery of a new copper concentrator to be built in Kazakhstan at a cost of approximately euro 85 million. Metso’s scope of delivery consists of the main process equipment for grinding, flotation and dewatering and includes HIGmill® high-intensity grinding mills, TankCell® flotation cells in different sizes in the 30-630 m3, Larox® PF pressure filters, high-rate thickeners, an on-line sampling and analysing system, as well as field instrumentation and Proscon® automation for the whole concentrator plant. The flotation cells, pressure filters and high-rate thickeners are part of the company’s Planet Positive portfolio, due to their superior energy and water efficiency.

INDONESIA

Nickel Industries to proceed with HPAL plant

Nickel Industries has taken a final investment decision for its Excelsior nickel cobalt high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) project in the Morowali industrial park in central Sulawesi. The project, known as the Dawn HPAL+ project, is expected to produce 72,000 t/a of contained nickel equivalent in the form of mixed hydroxide precipitate, nickel sulphate and nickel cathode that are all class 1 nickel products. Production is expected to start during October-December 2025, according to Nickel Industries.

The firm has been carrying out a feasibility study for the project, which may lead to a stage two expansion. The expansion, if realised, will double expected production to 144,000 t/a of contained nickel equivalent. The project has also obtained a 15-year tax holiday with two more years of 50% corporate tax cuts from the Indonesian government, said the firm. The firm engaged a “global investment bank” to help with securing offtake and possible project level investment partners, it said, claiming the response has been “very strong”. The firm’s largest shareholder Chinese investment firm Shanghai Decent Investment will through its affiliate Decent Resource provide a comprehensive construction guarantee that includes covering the project’s capital expenditure, so long the total construction costs do not exceed $2.3 billion. Nickel Industries secured $400 million of financing facilities with Bank Negara Indonesia to help fund the project, including a five-year senior term loan facility of $350 million.

Nickel Industries will slowly work its way to owning 55% of the project in phases, with Shanghai Decent eventually owning 25%, and Indonesian construction company United Tractors the remaining 20%. The company also recently signed an agreement with local solar firm Sumber Energi Surya Nusantara to develop a 200 MW solar project in Morowali industrial park to supply electricity to its existing operations and the planned Dawn HPAL+ project in order to reduce carbon emissions.

The nickel market is currently in surplus due to increases in supply from Indonesian projects, but this is expected to be short-lived, with a shortage expected from 2026 onwards as demand for EV batteries picks up. An extra 1.5 million t/a of new nickel demand is expected by 2040. Indonesia now represents 45% of the global nickel market.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Ramu back to full production following earthquake

Nickel 28 Capital Corp. says that it has successfully resumed full production levels at the Ramu mine’s Basumuk HPAL plant following the earthquake on October 7th. The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 6.7, triggered immediate safety protocols and a comprehensive evaluation of the site’s infrastructure. While the event disrupted operations temporarily, the Company says that there were no injuries or significant environmental impacts associated with the earthquake or subsequent response efforts. The company is not anticipating any material impact on production and is still guiding for annual production levels at Ramu of approximately 33,000 t/a of contained nickel and 2,900 t/a of contained cobalt in calendar 2023.

The Basamuk nickel processing plant, part of the Ramu nickel complex.

PHOTO: NICKEL 28

AUSTRALIA

Codelco to buy Lithium Power

Chile’s state-owned copper producer Codelco plans to buy out Lithium Power International (LPI), with LPI’s major shareholder Chilean firm Minera Salar Blanco throwing its support behind the deal. Codelco and LPI have entered into a binding scheme implementation deed, where Codelco acquires LPI through a scheme of arrangement at A$0.57/share ($0.36/ share) in cash for a total of A$385 million. The acquisition is a logical consolidation in the Maricunga salt flat and will help position Codelco to strongly “execute our strategy of becoming a globally relevant supplier of critical metals to enable the energy transition”, said Codelco’s chairman Maximo Pacheco. LPI in 2022 confirmed the potential for its lithium project in Maricunga salt flat to produce 15,200 t/a of lithium carbonate equivalent over a period of 20 years in its first stage.

AUSTRALIA

Alliance Nickel delays definitive feasibility study

Alliance Nickel, developing the $1.2 billion NiWest nickel-cobalt project in Western Australia, says that it will delay a definitive feasibility study until the middle of next year as it grapples with rising cost estimates. In a filing to the Australian Stock Exchange, the company said that it needed time to complete cost optimisation studies and water drilling programs, and would instead publish an updated mineral resource estimate this quarter, with the data to be used to update ore reserve tonnages to be incorporated into the study.

The NiWest project is focused on the proposed Mt Kilkenny mine south-east of Leonora, south of Glencore’s Murrin Murrin nickel-cobalt operations, and is one of the largest and highest-grade undeveloped nickel laterite resources in Australia. An updated pre-feasibility study last year gave NiWest a total projected production across 27 years of 456,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate and 31,440 t of cobalt sulphate for supply to electric vehicle battery manufacturers and automakers.

Conico to include HPAL plant

Conico says that it is close to completion of a scoping study for its Mt Thirsty nickel project near the Western Australian town of Norseman. The study will now incorporate the adoption of high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) and the addition of a plant to produce a precursor cathode active material. Conico is assessing its options against other comparable HPAL projects, which typically attain respective cobalt and nickel recoveries of 90% and 92% respectively.

Glencore to close Mt Isa

Glencore has announced the closure of the three copper mines it owns at Mt Isa as well as the copper concentrator, by the second half of 2025. About 1200 jobs may be lost at what is one of the largest copper mines in the world, with operations dating back to 1924. “Glencore has conducted a range of studies and reviews seeking to further extend the life of the underground copper mines but unfortunately it has not been possible and they have reached the end of mine life,” the company said in a press statement in October. “The studies revealed the remaining mineral resources are not economically viable due to low ore grades and areas where, due to geological conditions, safe extraction can’t be achieved using current technology, this all coupled with ageing infrastructure.”

CHILE

Cochilco says costs are rising

The costs of large-scale copper mining in Chile are rising due to lower production and rising service costs, according to a new report from the state-run Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco). The report says that the direct cost of copper production reached $1.99/lb in 1H 2023, a year-on-year increase of $0.396. Lower production and the increase in the costs of third-party services, remunerations and prices of materials, electricity and TC-RC (treatment and refining) charges explain the increase in costs, though the report noted a few factors had counteracted cost increases, including higher credits for the sale of molybdenum and gold, and decreases in the cost of sulphuric acid, freight charges and diesel fuel.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Zijin to develop Manono lithium project

Chinese multinational mining firm Zijin Mining is to explore and develop the northeast part of the Manono lithium project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The mine is one of the largest open-pit exploitable lithium-rich lithium, cesium, tantalum pegmatite deposits in the world, Zijin says. The project is still in an early stage, with construction projected to be completed within two years after the feasibility study and financing plan is determined. A lithium smelting industry park will be built at the same time, with more details including the capacity and launch dates still undisclosed.

Zijin aims to increase its lithium capacity to 120,000-150,000 t/a of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) by 2025. It has invested in the Tres Quebradas lithium brine project in Argentina, the Huadao lithium project in central China’s Hunan province and the Laguocuo salt lake brine project in northwest China’s Tibet region. It has control over 12.15 million tonnes LCE of resources.

RUSSIA

Nornickel launches SO2 abatement project

Norilsk Nickel has launched the first stage of its sulphur dioxide abatement programme at the Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant. The aim is to radically reduce sulphur dioxide emissions in Norilsk over the next two years. Construction of the abatement plant has taken three years, with equipment delivered by sea for the reconfiguration of metallurgical production at a cost of just under $2 billion. Work has been slowed by sanctions, but Nornickel says that it has found alternative manufacturers and suppliers for the work.

Sulphur dioxide emissions from metallurgical plants in Norilsk have totalled 1.8 million t/a, making it the largest man-made source of SO2 on the planet. The project being implemented at Nadezhda is based on capture of sulphur dioxide and conversion first into sulphuric acid, and then downstream neutralisation with limestone to produce gypsum. A specialised gypsum storage facility has been created to receive the waste gypsum. The project is being implemented in stages. In the first stage, SO2 emissions at Norilsk will drop by 20% in 2024 and 45% in 2025 compared to a base year of 2015.