Hindustan Copper seeks technology

INDIA - Hindustan Copper seeks technology

Published: Monday, 26 January 2015 10:29
Indian mineral resource company Hindustan Copper is inviting Expressions of Interest (EoI) from mining technology suppliers for direct recovery from refinery spent electrolyte.
Hindustan Copper is an India Government-owned corporation under the Ministry of Mines. It is the only vertically integrated copper producer in India engaged in a wide spectrum of activities ranging from mining, beneficiation, smelting, refining and continuous cast rod manufacturing. The company manufactures and markets copper cathodes, copper continuous cast copper wire rod and by-products such as anode slime (containing gold, silver and selenium), copper sulphate and sulphuric acid.
Hindustan Copper has embarked on an ambitious expansion plan whereby the mining capacity is likely to increase four-fold in the coming years. As part of the process, the company is interested in replacing the present arrangement by a more efficient technology.
The new technology should enable recovery of the following from the refinery electrolyte: Copper and nickel from spent electrolyte as purer metals; sulphuric acid from the spent electrolyte for reusing in the refinery in order to reduce the effluent treatment cost and process cost; and the remnant selenium and tellurium from the electrolyte.
The current practice of the refinery includes recovery of copper from spent electrolyte as copper sulphate crystal and as liberator cathodes. Nickel is also recovered partly as nickel hydroxide.
Presently, the ICC Smelter & Refinery plant of Hindustan Copper at Ghatsila, Jharkhand, is in operation and the annual capacity of the plant is 18,500 tonnes. The plant uses concentrate from the nearby Surda mine, part of the Singbhum copper belt (SCB), as well as from the Malanjkhand mine. The concentrate from Surda mines contains around 4500 ppm nickel and as a result appreciable amounts of nickel are present in the electrolyte of the refinery.
The company recognizes the fact that a single company may not provide the best solution for all its issues and also the best technology supplier for any particular issue may not even be in a position to indicate any solution for other issues. Accordingly all interested original technology supplier for the above mentioned fields may take part in the EoI.

http://www.hindustancopper.com/Admin/FlatFile/EoI_20012015.pdf