Message Sam 19 Fév 2011 16:28

Ndola Lime pays $6m for hydrate plant replacement

By Business Reporter

NDOLA Lime Company has spent US$6 million to replace the Hydrate Plant on the Copperbelt where the new equipment will be fully operational by August this year.

Ministry of Mines Permanent Secretary Godwin Beene told the Parliamentary committee on Government Assurances chaired by Siavonga MP Douglas Siakalima that substantial progress had been made in getting Ndola Lime Company back to full operational levels.

Much of the equipment, which is environmetally-friendly, has arrived at the plant.
Dr Beene said the $6million had already been paid to the manufacturers and that all equipment had reached the Dar-Es-Salaam.

“The $6 million bridge loan was paid in March last year to the manufacturers and all eight containers carrying the equipment have been cleared in Dar es Salaam with five of them already on site,” he said.

The equipment to be installed includes the 500 tonnes a day Vertical Kiln that would be either fired by coal or Heavy Fuel Oils, 15 tonnes an hour Hydrating Plant, the Coal Handling Plant and the Lime Packing and Bagging plant.

He said so far, civil and structural designs were done with excavation for the location of the hydrate plant almost complete and that the vertical kiln would start soon.

He however said the construction of the vertical Steel plant and the rest of the equipment awaited more payment.

And Dr Beene said that Government was working closely with Konkola Copper Mine (KCM) to resume production at Nkana Smelter in Kitwe which was shut late last year.

Dr Beene said resuming of production at the Nkana smelter was hampered by technical challenges which included the poor performance of the aging plant as compared to other such plants.

He said the major reason that led to the plant being shut was the high cost of production which stood at $0.57 per pound as compared to $ 0.15 per pound being used at the other KCM smelter in Chingola.

The other reason was the low recovery of copper which stood at 9 per cent as compared to 96 per cent at the Chingola plant and that the Kitwe plant was environmentally unfriendly.

Whereas the new plant captures 95 per cent of the sulphur dioxide which it turns into sulphuric acid to use in the new form of copper processing called electro-winning, the Nkana plant released the spewed unacceptably high levels.