PALABORA MINING COMPANY
“ I set a vision for the project : when we leave we must leave something substantial behind ”
– Nick Fouché
per annum ( tpa ) of pure copper from a throughput of up to 120,000 tonnes per day ( tpd ) of ore . The present day operation produces about 41,000 tpa from 3,000 tpd . “ The size of the furnace does not match our production footprint , and that means huge inefficiencies through heat loss and a very costly downstream process ,” he says . The smelter is being retrofitted at a total cost of $ 55 million , the entire furnace is being replaced and new technology introduced throughout , it will be effectively a new smelter . At the time of writing the project was still under tender .
As mentioned earlier PMC is not a pure play copper producer . The magnetite circuit , upgraded last year with the purchase of a new separation plant and a drying plant that can handle six million tpa adding a price premium of five to eight dollars a tonne to the product , is of immense importance to the company . This revenue goes a long way to fund the Lift II project , says Fouché “ Now that everyone is struggling with iron ore , it is the ones with the low grade that are falling out of the market . We are in a good position to continue to produce
72 August 2016