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PROCESSING SOLUTIONS ABB to Manage Plant Maintenance at Tsumeb Custom Smelter ABB has been awarded a five-year full service contract with Namibia Custom Smelters (NCS) to manage and improve all maintenance activities at NCS's copper smelting and converting plant in northern Namibia. The full service total plant main- tenance agreement included the transfer of NCS maintenance and reliability staff to ABB as of July 1, 2012. ABB's Full Service model, which encom- passes the complete management and oper- ation of a plant's maintenance function, development and implementation of expert measures to improve productivity and equip- ment reliability, will be employed at NCS. NCS is located in Tsumeb, Namibia, approximately 425 km north of the capital, Windhoek. The plant, which was commis- sioned in 1963, is owned by Dundee Precious Metals Inc. of Canada. It com- prises two primary smelting furnaces, three converters, and has an annual production capacity of 200,000 metric tons of copper concentrate from the treatment of complex copper concentrates containing gold, silver and arsenic. Dundee Precious Metals reported recently that a used oxygen plant, pur- chased in the first quarter of 2011, was shipped from North America to Namibia in November 2011 and arrived on site in the first quarter of 2012. The company expect- ed this second oxygen plant to be commis- sioned before the end of 2012, which will increase the smelting capacity of the Ausmelt furnaces to 240,000 mt/y from its current capacity. Total capital expenditures for 2012 at the smelter are projected to be approximate- ly $60 million for environmental and plant optimizations projects, according to Dundee. The smelter is one of only a few in the world that is able to treat arsenic-bearing copper concentrates. Both blister copper and arsenic trioxide are produced from the concentrates; the copper is then delivered to refineries for final processing, while the arse- nic trioxide is sold to third party customers. Under the service agreement, ABB will manage all maintenance to improve produc- tivity and equipment reliability at the plant, and retain and develop all existing mainte- nance staff and management. In addition, ABB will provide process optimization, ener- gy consulting and equipment lifecycle serv- ices at the site, as well as manage all third- party subcontractors and suppliers. Hans Nolte, vice president and manag- ing director, NCS, said, "As new state-of- the-art technology is introduced, highly skilled engineering staff will be required to maintain the smelter in the future. NCS is confident that ABB will apply best prac- tices and transfer knowledge to Namibian employees who will benefit from this part- nership in the long run." Unveiling FLSMidth's SuperCell 600 FLSmidth reports that its 600 Series SuperCell, the latest development in the company's portfolio of flotation technology, provides active cell volumes in the range of 600-660 m3. Cutaway illustration of FLSmidth's SuperCell 600 flota- tion machine. "With the increasing demand for larg- er flotation cells, FLSmidth has invested in research and development to create these large SuperCells," said Peter J. Flanagan, Non-Ferrous Division executive vice president. "The SuperCells will help increase efficiencies while reducing capi- tal expenditures." Under a service agreement with Dundee Precious Metals' Namibia Custom Smelters, ABB will manage all mainte- nance at the NCS Tsumeb facilities, shown here, provide process optimization, energy consulting and equipment lifecycle services at the site, and manage all third-party subcontractors and suppliers. 122 E&MJ; • AUGUST 2012 FLSmidth offers both naturally aspirated and forced air mechanisms for the new SuperCell. "The universal tank promotes mechanism interchangeability for added customization and performance capability," said Frank P. Traczyk, director of flotation products, who predicted that, with single flotation cell volume more than doubling over the past decade. economies of scale, declin- ing ore grades and near-term commodity pricing stability bode well for the integration of the 600 Series into large concentrators. Innovative cell characterization tools and novel simulation techniques con- tributed to technical improvements over existing rotor-stator technologies. "Mineralogical diversity, its interaction with fine and coarse particle recovery and lowering energy and operating costs are just some of the challenges faced by min- eral processing operations around the world. The Flotation group at FLSmidth is committed to solving these types of prob- lems with revolutionary rotor-stator designs…created and tested aggressively in our research facility," said Traczyk. "Maximizing valuable mineral production requires a mind-shift away from historical norms, and the SuperCell 600 Series is another step in this evolutionary process." Hydrodynamic and metallurgical testing of the 600 Series will begin in late 2012. www.e-mj.com