nickel concentrate at cosmic boy in australia

Reference Story

Nickel is a corrosion-resistant metal used in many industrial

and consumer products, including stainless steel. The Cos-

mic Boy nickel concentrate plant in Western Australia will be

a vital asset for Western Areas, which is aiming to become a

major nickel producer. Vacon AC drives control a wide vari-

ety of pumps at the concentrator plant, for process fl ow and

pressure control.

Forrestania Nickel Project, 600 km east of Perth in Western

Australia, contains substantial exploration potential with

more than 25 nickel occurrences identifi ed already. Even the

most experienced analysts and geologists admit that they

have not seen anything to compare with these high quality and

unusual nickel deposits. Forrestania Nickel Project is owned

100 % by Western Areas, an Australian-based nickel sulphide

explorer and producer with advanced projects also in Canada

and Finland. The company plans to develop fi ve mines at the

Forrestania site by 2011, for a targeted production of some

35,000 tonnes of nickel a year.

To establish Forrestania as a major nickel province produc-

ing ore from a number of sources, it was essential to build a

central concentrate plant at Cosmic Boy, centrally located in

the Forrestania site. The 250,000 tonne per annum plant was

offi cially opened by the Western Australian Minister for Mines

and Petroleum on 24 March 2009, and since then the plant has

been upgraded to 550,000 tonne per annum. The plant takes

nickel ore production from Flying Fox and Spotted Quoll, the

fi rst mines in operation at Forrestania.

The central concentrator plant provides several benefi ts. It

gives Forrestania the possibility to manage the concentrate

process, to improve metallurgical recoveries and to blend

high and low grade ores from a number of deposits. It also

reduces ore transports and increases profi tability.

Nickel sulphide fl otation process plant

Western Areas appointed a Perth based engineering services

team for the engineering, design, procurement, construction

and commissioning of the Cosmic Boy nickel concentrate. The

plant was designed for a process throughput of 250,000 tpa,

at a milling nominal treatment rate of 30 tph, with provision

for an expansion in processing capacity to a throughput of

550,000 tpa.

Processing includes primary crushing, conveying, coarse ore

storage and milling incorporating fl ash fl otation to produce a

nickel concentrate. Concentrate is dewatered via thickening

and fi ltration to produce a concentrate suitable for dispatch

via trucking and shipping. Process plant tails are thickened

prior to being pumped to the tailings storage facility.

The stage 2 upgrade, to be fully operational in June 2010,

included the crushing circuit upgrade, the conversion of the

Unusual nickel deposits at Forrestania

Vacon Pacifi c

5/66-74 Micro Circuit

Dandenong South

Victoria 3175, Australia

Tel. +61 (0)3 9238 9300

Fax. +61 (0)3 9238 9310

E-mail sales.australia@vacon.com

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SAG mill to a ball mill and installation of additional fl otation

and thickener capacity.

Vacon AC drives to improve process control

The engineering services team focuses on providing integrat-

ed, effi cient and practical designs to achieve high quality, cost

effective solutions, whilst maintaining a high level of safety

and operational performance to successfully deliver proj-

ects. To achieve these goals, the engineering services team

needed AC drives for their project.

Vacon has supplied to this project a total of 44 Vacon NXS

range of variable speed AC drives in the power range from

0.25 kW to 160 kW. The Vacon variable speed AC drives con-

trol various pumps at the Cosmic Boy concentrator plant.

Pump control with the help of a variable speed AC drive brings

considerable energy savings. It also improves process con-

trol, which is essential in the concentrating process to ensure

consistent quality for the process ore.

“Vacon AC variable speed drives were selected to provide re-

liability with local service support for the remote location of

the mine site,” says Geoff Foster, Corporate Segment Direc-

tor, Mining Minerals & Cement, Vacon.

Cosmic Boy nickel concentrator is an essential part of Forrestania Nickel Project using conventional fl otation technology to process ore into nickel concentrate with an average grade of 14 % nickel. The stage 2 upgrade at the Cosmic Boy nickel concentrate is expected to double the capacity of the plant by June 2010. It will process the in-creased production from the Flying Fox and Spotted Quoll mines.

The primary discovery at Forrestania, Flying Fox, is one of the highest grade nickel deposits in the world and has now been in production for two years. Western Areas is targeting combined annual production from the Flying Fox and Spotted Quoll mines of 25,000t nickel by 2011.

Nickel, in its pure form, is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. It is a corrosion-resistant metal used in many industrial and consumer products. Accord-ing to some estimates, demand for nickel will continue to exceed supply over the coming years.

Vacon AC drives control a wide variety of pumps at the concentrator plant, for process fl ow and pressure con-trol.