The Budel smelter is situated near Weert in the south east of the Netherlands, near the Belgian border and close to major European industrial centres in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg and northern France.  Approximately 80% of total product sales are delivered to customers within 300 kilometres of the plant.  The smelter was commissioned in 1973, uses conventional RLE technology and is one of Europe's most efficient zinc smelters in terms of its metallurgical performance.  It produced approximately 212,000 tonnes of zinc in 2003, however, after the planned expansion to 232,000 tonnes per year scheduled for 2004, it will be about the ninth largest zinc smelter in the world.
Budel produces SHG, CGG and cadmium and sulphuric acid by-products. With access to rail and canal transport in an area of good infrastructure, Budel is well located to supply European markets. It has strong brand recognition in a very competitive market.  Budel is a virtually solid waste-free zinc smelter, following a process conversion in 2000 which resulted in it becoming fully dependent on Century for its concentrate.
Budel's strategy is to expand its zinc capacity to 260,000 tonnes per year in 2006, whilst maximising the revenue from its existing capacity by increasing the proportion of high margin alloy products that it produces. As part of this strategy, Budel plans to enter the European EZDA market.
Budel will also seek to capture the value of the 550 hectares of nature reserve and industrial land that it owns adjacent to the site. Budel is working with a number of interested parties, including the city council of the municipality of Budel, to have some 100 hectares of this land re-zoned as industrial by the end of 2004.
In 2000, the Budel process was modified significantly to allow for the conversion to Century concentrates. The special nature of Century concentrates has provided a number of benefits, including higher recovery and lower energy requirements.
The modification also means that Budel's process is reliant on low iron concentrates. As part of its strategy of focusing on high margin alloy products, Budel commissioned new alloying facilities in 2001. This significantly increased its alloying capacity from 75,000 tonnes per year to 100,000 tonnes per year. The facility is able to produce CGG, Eutectic (5% aluminium) and special nickel/zinc alloys.
As part of its strategy of pursuing low cost capacity expansion opportunities, Budel is planning to de-bottleneck each area of the plant, which it expects will increase production capacity to 260,000 tonnes by 2006. The cost of the expansion is expected to be approximately US$340 per tonne of zinc metal capacity and as such, is substantially below the industry standard cost. The first stage will involve an increase to 232,000 tonnes during 2004 by expanding the capacity of the cell house.

Production

Budel currently produces CGG and SHG zinc metal in addition to the industrial alloy it is now able to produce.
Budel also produces cadmium metal and over 320,000 tonnes of high-quality Sulphuric acid, sold to a majority of customers located within a 150 kilometre radius of the plant.
In addition, it produces approximately 81,000 wet tonnes of Budel Leach Product (BLP) per year that is sold to secondary European smelters that recover lead and precious metals. Classification of BLP as a saleable product is essential to the continued operation of Budel and to ensure this, Zinifex often blends high concentrates with silver lead into its feedstock.

Environmental Management

Budel has ISO 14001 certification for its site environmental management system in addition to ISO 9001:2000 certification for its quality management system.
Budel has been a virtually solid waste-free zinc smelter following its conversion in 2000 to Century concentrates. This conversion enabled the site to comply with environmental commitments made to the Dutch authorities to cease production of solid waste material, namely jarosite.
A second biological waste water treatment plant, commissioned in 1999, allowed Budel to cease production of its other solid waste, gypsum.
Budel has an agreement with the Province of Noord-Brabant for completion of capping of its historic jarosite and gypsum ponds by December 2005 prior to handing over responsibility of the area to the provincial authorities.
The agreement also included an obligation to pay the province an amount to cover the costs relating to the ongoing maintenance of the ponds after handover. Discussions with the Province are underway to determine the amount of the after care fund. The outcome should be concluded by the end of 2004.

Capital Expenditure

Over the two years to 2005, Zinifex expects to spend 25.2 million on capital expenditure. A campaign shut-down for mid-calendar 2004 will cost approximately 3.6 million.   Major growth projects include expansion of Budel's capacity to 260,000 tonnes per year in 2006 which is expected to cost 9.3 million.