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DKL Engineering, Inc.
Handbook of Sulphuric Acid Manufacturing
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Acid Plant Database November 18, 2021
Owner | Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project |
![]() ![]() |
Location |
Lualaba Democratic Republic of Congo |
|
Background | Joint Venture 38.6% Ivanhoe Mines 39.6% Zijin Mining Group 0.8% Crystal River Global Group 20.0% DRC |
|
Website |
www.ivanhoemines.com
www.zijinmining.com |
|
Plant | - | |
Coordinates* | - | |
Type of Plant | Metallurgical | |
Gas Source |
Copper Smelter Direct to Blister Flash Furnace |
|
Plant Capacity | - | |
SA/DA | DA | |
Emissions | - | |
Status | Design | |
Year Built | - | |
Technology | Flash Furnace: Metso-Outotec | |
Contractor | Nerin Engineering | |
Remarks | - | |
Pictures | - | |
General | - | |
References | - | |
News |
November 18, 2021 - Ivanhoe Mines has awarded a 500,000
tonnes per annum direct-to-blister copper smelting plant contract for the
Kamoa-Kakula Complex to China Nerin Engineering.
The smelter will be the most extensive of its kind in Africa and one
of the largest single-line flash smelters in the world.
The $700 million project is expected to speed along Ivanhoe’s
ambition to produce environmentally sustainable ‘green copper’ to feed into
the emerging global energy transition.
The smelter, supplied by Finland’s Metso Outotec, has been sized to
process most of the copper concentrate forecast to be produced by
Kamoa-Kakula’s Phase 1, 2 and 3 concentrators.
The smelter is expected to be built concurrently with the project’s
Phase 3 mine and concentrator expansion over the next three years and the
upgrading of turbine five at the Inga II hydropower complex.
Ivanhoe says an onsite smelting facility has compelling cost and
environmental benefits, including reducing the volume of copper concentrate
shipped from the mine by about 50%-plus and the associated logistics costs,
export taxes and concentrate treatment charges.
The smelter also will produce sulphuric acid as a by-product,
creating a new revenue stream for Kamoa Copper. According to Ivanhoe, there
is a strong demand and market for sulphuric acid in the DRC to recover
copper from oxide ores.
Kamoa-Kakula currently is producing an extremely high-grade, clean copper
concentrate containing approximately 55% copper and low levels of arsenic by
world standards – about 0.01%. Approximately 35% of Kamoa-Kakula’s Phase 1
concentrate is sent to the local Lualaba smelter for processing into blister
copper ingots – containing approximately 99% copper – while the remainder is
transported via trucks and ships to international smelters for treatment.
Kakula is projected to be the world’s highest-grade major copper
mine, with an initial mining rate of 3.8 million tonnes per annum at an
estimated average feed grade of more than 6% copper over the first five
years of operations and 5.9% copper over the initial 10 years of operations.
Phase 1 is expected to produce about 200,000 tonnes of copper per
year, while the Phase 2 expansion is forecast to increase production to
about 400,000 tonnes of copper annually. Kamoa Copper is on track to
complete the Phase 2 expansion in the second quarter of 2022.
Based on independent benchmarking, the project’s phased expansion
scenario to 19 million tonnes per annum would position Kamoa-Kakula as the
world’s second-largest copper mining complex, with peak annual copper
production of more than 800,000 tonnes.
The operation yielded its maiden
profit in the first full quarter of operations. On November 15,
the company reported a profit of $85.4 million for the three months to
September 30. The Kamoa-Kakula
project is a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines (39.6%), Zijin Mining Group
(39.6%), Crystal River Global Limited (0.8%) and the Government of the DRC
(20%). |
MTPD - Metric Tonne per Day
STPD - Short Ton per Day
MTPA - Metric Tonne per Annum STPA - Short Ton per
Annum
SA - Single Absorption
DA - Double Absorption
* Coordinates can be used to
locate plant on Google Earth