Ausmelt will engineer and supply all equipment needed – including lances, lance cleaning devices and lance seals – for the conversion of nickel matte into platinum group metals.
The company is already supplying the technology to the $1 billion South Australian Steel and Energy pig iron project planned for Whyalla, as well as two nickel refineries in Zimbabwe, the world’s biggest tin smelter in Peru, two zinc refineries in Korea and two copper smelters in China.
“The technology is very versatile. It can be used to smelt nickel, cobolt, lead, zinc, copper, tin, iron ore,” said company director Philip Bruce.
The process involves injecting fuel and air into the top of an enclosed vessel using a lance. The fuel combusts at the tip of the lance heating the furnace contents, while the injected gases cause vigorous agitation and rapid process reactions.
“It’s just like blowing into a coke bottle through a straw,” said Bruce.
Conditions in the furnace can be precisely controlled and rapid reactions mean short processing times and smaller furnaces than more conventional designs, leading to operating and cost advantages.
It also significantly reduces smelter emissions, particularly of sulphur dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Ausmelt has been working with Amplats since June 1996 on “a very intensive investigation of the Ausmelt option”, which led to the establishment and operation of a pilot plant in Johannesburg in 1999.
It is expected to shortly announce a deal that will allow Amplats to introduce the technology at other sites around South Africa.
This deal is just one in a string of successes the company has had in recent times. Last week it signed a memorandum of understanding with Thiess to look at the market for a new spent pot lining (SPL) treatment technology it has been developing with Alcoa.
The cash will give it the necessary liquidity to pursue further projects around the world, said Bruce.
Investors are also starting to sit up and take notice of the stock.
“Ausmelt has taken its light out from under its bushel and is attracting interest,” Bruce said.
Its shares have risen from about 20c just over a year ago to close at $1.90 yesterday.
