Metso From Ore to Metals: Metso Outotec Offers Complete Solution to Recover Precious & Base Metals from Cengiz Mazidagi

The idea was that by roasting the sulfur, it can be converted into sulfuric acid, which then goes into the direction of fertilizer production. We realized there are other valuable metallic elements which can be leached, and by utilising certain technologies, the site would be able to recover base metals such as cobalt, zinc and copper as well as precious metals.

Taygun Bayram, Site Manager for Eti Bakır Mazıdağı, notes that another challenge they had to overcome was the overall lack of experience with these new technologies they were inventing.

“This technology was not well known in Turkey, or even globally,” says Bayram. “Because it is quite new, and their plant was a Greenfield plant, there was a lack of experience there as to if this could really work. This was the main challenge was them and for us as well, but their leap of faith in Metso Outotec gave us even more motivation to complete the task.”

For this project, Metso Outotec provided integrated digital tools such as a Roasting Plant Optimizer, which is configured independently from the plant’s distributed control system (DCS). During the early days of the site, it proved to be a very effective tool to help get the plant into operation and on requested levels. This system, along with Metso Outotec’s Plant Operability Reliability and Safety (PORS) philosophy, enable future employment of a full plant optimizer.

“In essence, a further step has been made towards digital readiness,” says Bayram. “DCS functionality remains untouched by the optimizer. Process variables, such as feed belt speeds, are exchanged between the instrumentation and DCS, but control, such as the shut-down procedure, remains in the DCS.”

BENEFITS

• Recover of Metals such as Cobalt, Zinc, Copper, Gold & Silver

• Phosphate beneficiation in effective ratio & quality prior to Fertilizer production.

• Sulfuric acid production

• Phosphate beneficiation in effective ratio & quality prior to Fertilizer production.

Innovation is embedded in Metso Outotec DNA

The Eti Bakır Mazıdağı project began in 2013. as discussions on feasibility and potential project development were beginning to kick off. Test work was started at the Outotec R&D Centre in Frankfurt, Germany, on the pyrite fluid bed roasting process. In parallel, test work for metals recovery was also developing at the R&D centre in Pori, Finland. After years of hard work with basic engineering and the scope of deliverables, the plant was fully commissioned by 2018. with the first products already having been recovered.

“This was not an overnight change,” states Taygun. “This was a big project including many sites at the same time. When you look at the degree of distribution we were doing, and the many years of hard work and collaboration involved, this was a huge project to undertake.”

The success of this project came down to the Metso Outotec solution of extensive testing. Through the testing, concept development and basic engineering studies, Metso Outotec was able to prove that we do have the technology needed to recover these materials. We also provided technology deliveries such as:

• Autogenous Milll, Thickeners, Filters, Courier 6i SL and Courier 8 SL online analysers for phosphate beneficiation plant

• Roasting plant for pyrite concentrates, off gas cleaning and complete sulfuric acid plant

• Leaching plant, SX, and EW process islands

Lead Process Engineer, Marcus Runkel, believes that their early piloting led to the success of the operation. “One of the key issues when starting a new project like this is how do you hook everything up and push the project all the way to the end,” says Marcus. “Without our initial test work to figure out our different solutions and process routes, we would not have this project today.”

Metso Outotec has the capability to supply complex solutions. After initial discussions on process options, the customer installed two roasters in parallel with one gas cleaning and one acid plant, with Metso Outotec also supplying the two boilers behind the roasters. Altogether, the total complex includes the hydrometallurgical plant engineered by Metso Outotec personnel in Finland. The plant has the following main products: Steam/electric power, acid which goes further into the fertilizer plant, and calcine which goes into the hydrometallurgical plant to recover Zn, Co, Cu.