CONCENTRATE PRODUCTION
Example of a Lead & Zinc Concentrate Plant
HOME > OPERATIONS > CONCENTRATE PRODUCTION
CIKANDE CONCENTRATE PLANT CAPACITY PLAN
IMP will be building a Lead and Zinc Concentrate Plant in Modern Cikande Industrial Estate with a targeted capacity of 46,000 metric tons of ore Input per month (the "Targeted Capacity").
Assuming a metal content of 25% and a recovery rate of 90%, this will produce nearly 18,500 metric tons of Concentrate each month of Lead and Zinc Concentrate. This capacity will also produce Copper Concentrate, as IMP Ore contains around 2% Copper, and significant revenue from Silver content of 5 - 7 grams per metric ton of Ore processed. Currently projects are that 42% of revenue from Concentrate will be Zinc, 33% will be Lead, 9% will be Copper, and 16% will be Silver.
Once Concentrate production begins in mid-2020, IMP will sell Lead Concentrate both domestically and internationally, while Zinc Concentrate will be exported, as there is no domestic market. By mid-2022, however, this Concentrate will become the feedstock for the IMP-owned Smelting & Purification Plant in Cikande. The result will be that the input of the Concentrate Plant will decline from 46,000 metric tons of ore to 35,000 metric tons of ore due to the limited size of the smelting plant.
CONCENTRATE PLANT CONSTRUCTION
We will build the Concentrate Plant in the Modern Cikande Industrial Estate because the cost of electricity required at the mine to process the ore will be so large relative to the cost of transportation, and the risks of operating at the mine so much greater, that management has concluded it will be wiser to transport the ore to Cikande rather than build the Concentrate Plant at the mine where parts replacement is a challenge, quality employees are difficult to find or must be brought in at significantly higher prices, and local people can create trouble in order to extort money.
Below is a schematic of the equipment and process flow of a standard Lead-Zinc Concentrate Plant (also called a Beneficiation Plant) similar to what IMP will be building. IMP will actually be building a Lead-Zinc-Copper Plant and separating Copper Concentrate for sale as well.
Step 1: Crushing
Step 2: Milling
Step 3: Flotation
Step 4: Drying
IMP PLANNED CONCENTRATE PROCESS
1. Crushing from lump Ore to small pebbles
2. Milling (using a Ball Mill and Spiral Classifier) to create a fine Ore powder
3. Flotation to separate the Lead Sulfide from the Zinc Sulfide, and possibly separation of the Copper Sulfide. Silver will be retained with the Lead Sulfide. This will utilize floatation cells that involve mixing the Ore dust with water and the Chemical in order to cause only the desired element, whether Lead, Zinc or Copper, to float to the surface and be skimmed off while the other elements sink.
4. Drying, which involves each of the separated Ore Dust held in water to go to a thickening tank to drying tanks, and then to vacuum presses.
An additional two steps that IMP will utilize are:
5. Bagging, which requires that each of the separated and dried Concentrates be pumped into bags generated 1 to 2 metric ton bags of Concentrate that can be stored without losses and then loaded to trucks for transport to the jetty and eventually the Smelting & Purification Plant.
6. Storage and Truck Loading, which will require a storage warehouse equipped with an overhead traveling crane to place the Concentrate bags into storage and then retrieve the Concentrate bags and load them to trucks directly using the overhead crane.
CONCENTRATE DESIGN CONCEPTS
IMP’s Concentration Plant will be ordered and delivered in three months after order, as civil works proceed simulatneously, with erection in the two months thereafter, for delivery including COD within five months -- projected to be by May 2020. Below is a schematic of the plant featuring three lines (Zinc, Lead and Copper) with a capacity of 46,000 MT input of ore each month.
