The Future of Ni-Cu Smelting in Botswana- The Choice between FSF and TSL
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17159/Abstract
The BCL furnace is due to restart operations after being placed on care and maintenance due to depressed nickel prices in 2016. The decision to start operations after such a stoppage ought to be led by a techno-economic evaluation of process options to make operations more resilient. For the BCL furnace, the decision lies between using the already present flash smelting furnace (FSF) or the top submerged lance (TSL) furnace. Available studies show that the FSF combined with other converting technologies is cheaper to operate, however, such studies are based on flowsheet simulation results of single copper concentrates and therefore do not provide a full scope of practical capabilities based on smelter operator skills.
Using a t-test on normalized past operational data from three Cu FSFs and two Cu TSLs it was found that the only statistical difference between the FSF and TSL technology were in the coal use for heating the feed blow and number of rebuilds. With the FSF consuming coal to heat the feed blow and the TSL undergoing 2.4 rebuilds during a course of one FSF campaign. A summative comparison of the operation costs associated with BCL changing from the current FSF to the TSL based on savings from coal usage for heating the blow and added costs of furnace rebuild of the TSL show that BCL can decrease operational costs by ~BWP 55.5 million.
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