Smart technology boosts Yabulu
The Yabulu nickel refinery in Townsville (below) will soon be the most efficient in the world, thanks to leading edge technology developed at the North Queensland plant.
The refinery, owned by QNI Ltd, a subsidiary of the world's largest mining company BHP Billiton, is undergoing a $450 million upgrade that will increase annual nickel production from 31,200 tonnes to 76,000 tonnes.
Cobalt output will rise from 1,900 tonnes to 3,500 tonnes a year.
Nickel and cobalt ore from BHP Billiton's new Ravensthorpe Mine in Western Australia will provide feedstock for the additional capacity.
New ore treatment technology developed by QNI will provide 15,000 tonnes a year of nickel metal that would either have been lost or considered too hard to process using more conventional methods.
QNI's president and chief operating officer Tim Netscher said the group's technology suite, which included conventional processes that had been modified at Yabulu, provided QNI with a world-beating flow sheet.
"We believe the key strengths of the combined project - low mining costs, high plant feed grade and a world-class refining circuit - gives it the best risk/reward profile for a lateritic nickel project anywhere in the world," he said.
Lateritic ores come from tropical and sub-tropical climates and are one of the two most common forms, the other being nickel sulphide ore.
Ore from Ravensthorpe will arrive at Yabulu partly processed. It then will be dissolved and separated into nickel and cobalt streams, and treated separately.
The cobalt is purified through a chemical process, then dried and packaged.
The final nickel product is refined at high temperatures, compressed and formed into nickel metal compacts for final packaging and sale.
When the expansion project is completed late in 2006, Yabulu will supply 16.8 per cent of the world's current nickel metal output.
"This now makes us very internationally competitive and underwrites the future of the refinery," Mr Netscher said.
"Our aim long-term is to undergo another major expansion to bring us up to 100,000 tonnes of nickel production per annum."
Townsville mayor Tony Mooney said the expansion would raise Townsville's international status as a world centre for minerals processing.
About 500 people will be employed in the construction phase of the project while an on-going workforce of a further 400 people will be directed and indirectly employed when the expanded capacity comes into production.
Nickel's major use is as an alloy of stainless steel, while cobalt's principal use is as a component of batteries.
Information:www.bhpbilliton.com
Last reviewed 19 January 2006