agm - why didnt they know ?, page-2

"First - Why didnt they know that HAB-3 was going to blow ?
Yes, the decision to use that casing was made before the full chemistry of the brine was known. But once the full analysis was done the hydrogen embrittlement should have been predicatable. I spoke to several at the AGM - still didnt get a satisfactory answer".

I am a corrosion consultant(retired) that used to work in the mineral processing/mining industry.The first problem is that good corrosion data is quite limited at high temperatures + high salinity + low pH + High Pressures. The second part is many plant design engineers simply dont pay enough attention to corrosion control in their designs, and even when they do consider it they dont have the background chemistry knowledge to appreciate it. I know one major plant where the whole corrosion control decisions were given to a junior engineer straight out of uni, it was a disaster and sent the company broke.

This is by no means the first big corrosion failure in mining and, from the above, I expect more. These can be avoided by doing some experimental lab testing BEFORE the plant is built, but that takes time and money.