08 Feb 2016

The Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, Mr Kitso Mokaila says delays in execution at the BCL smelter plant were mainly associated with obtaining contractor work permits late which affected work pace.

Mr Mokaila also told Parliament that delays resulted from the lifting and installation of the mantel sections of the uptake shaft due to inclement weather conditions and attendant lifting restriction.

He added that delays were also as a result of late contractor payments due to cash flow problems and the anticipated extra works associated with small bore piping assembly for flash smelting furnace cooling systems.

These, he said, further resulted in accumulation of seven weeks of additional BCL and toll concentrate materials in storage, which he said would be duly blended and treated with the normal arising by July this year.
He added that metal sales for such concentrate would also be realised this year.

Parliament also heard that the daily smelter rated capacity was 2 500 tonnes per day of concentrate at 97.5 per cent availability, and that it would allow accumulated concentrate materials to be depleted by July this year.
However, he indicated that contracts on additional toll concentrates were being finalised to ensure the smelter was operating at full capacity beyond July when stored concentrate ran out.

Furthermore, he said BCL concentrate accounted for only 50 per cent of total smelter capacity. The overall cost of the project, he said, was P749 million. Minister Mokaila further told Parliament that the BCL smelter plant was refurbished in July last year for a planned duration of 62 days.

He also indicated that the smelter’s normal campaign of eight years was already overdue for a rebuild by some three years and that productivity was greatly impaired.

Scopes of work, he explained, entailed, among others, rebuilding and modernising the Flash Smelting Furnace (FSF) in order to improve smelting process capability.

That, he said, involved renewing all feed system including reaction air system overhaul, water cooled refurbished burner, replacement with new mass and nesting integrated blocks and air slide refurbishment.

Also involved, he said, was refurbishing the reaction shaft roof structures and replacing them with a new roof refractory, gunniting of the irrigated shaft shell, replacement with two rows of the lower hottest zone of the reaction shaft with castellated cooling elements at the reaction shaft junction.

Furthermore, he explained that the scope of works involved complete replacement of the first half of the original domed suspended settler roof with a flat water cooled brick implanted copper elements (BICs) including all the reaction shaft quadrants.

All the refractory roof of the remaining settler roof with extra auxiliary oxy fuel burner ports were also replaced completely.

The refurbishment of the waste heat boiler,  installation of two diesel generator sets for backup in case of inadvertent power failure and the rebuilding of the electric furnaces and installation.

The Member of Parliament for Selebi-Phikwe West, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse had asked the minister to give details of the BCL smelter plant refurbishment, project cost, delays in the projects and effects as well as the capacity at which the smelter was expected to operate. Ends