Industrial Portfolio
Baghouse Filter Press – Electrical Scope
Leady fumes produced from the Sinter Plant and Blast Furnace are recovered in an electrostatic precipitator and several Baghouse’s, after which they are water leached to solubilise cadmium chloride. The leach slurry is then centrifuged to produce cadmium rich liquor from which cadmium metal is precipitated via zinc cementation. The residue from the copper plant is also added to the leady fumes slurry for solids recovery.
Centrifuge cake is repulped with potable water and returned to the sinter plant as a feed conditioning agent and for recovery of its metal values. The centrifuges have proven to be high maintenance and of poor availability. The solution is to replace four under-performing centrifuges used to de-water leached Baghouse sludge with a single pressure filter. Delivered the associated electrical scope for this capital improvement project.
KDR Stack Particulate Monitoring
3 EPA licensed stacks were fitted with dust particulate sensors that report via telemetry to a multicontroller located at the Slag Fuming PLC. Stack activity can now be monitored via Ifix, enabling the wet scrubber system to accurately have the moisture adjusted resulting in zero fugitive emissions.
Liquidation Kettle Upgrade
A large amount of Silver and Tellurium was circulating the refinery and unable to be extracted. 2 new furnaces were installed to recover these circulating precious metals. The liquation upgrade project in excess of $5 million was coordinated by myself and completed on schedule.
The Refinery modernisation was completed in 1997/98 that included the installation of 4 x Liquation Furnaces from BRM Technology in the UK. These units are 2.0M square and 2.6M tall, refractory lined and natural gas fired, in which the Kettle is mounted. The furnaces are hygiene and combustion gases drafted to an existing Baghouse with open top access for charging purposes. The Kettle is tapped from either of 2 tapping points for high or low grade into moulds.
CopperDosing Structural Recovery
There are two copper sulphate dosing tanks in the Leach Plant. The previous steelwork of the first floor of the Leaching Plant Building, and the supports of the copper sulphate dosing tanks and the access platform were severely corroded and required immediate action for repairs and replacement.