Although local furnace and industrial services company Dickinson Group has undertaken more than 90 projects in furnace repairs, demolitions and installations for the mining metals and minerals processing industry this year, it notes that furnace projects have decreased in magnitude, while several other projects have been postponed.

“The current state of the local economy, changes in commodity prices and the five-month-long platinum-sector strike earlier this year have resulted in metals and minerals processing companies becoming more cost conscious. They have either stopped smelting or are operating their furnaces at low capacity levels,” Dickinson Group CEO Trevor Dickinson tells Mining Weekly.

He points out that companies are also increasing furnace care and plant mainte-nance by undertaking smaller repair projects instead of complete furnace demolitions, upgrades or installations.

As these recent industry trends have been prevalent in the South African industry, Dickinson reiterates that, to mitigate the effects of the downturn in the local economy, Dickinson Group has shifted its focus to meet Southern Africa’s demand for furnace projects. With offices in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, the company has undertaken furnace projects and refractory installations, maintenance and demolition work in these countries, as well as in Zimbabwe, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

Further, the group started refractory lining installations in August at TSX-listed First Quantum Minerals’ (FQM’s) Kansanshi smelter, in Zambia.

The mine’s smelting units, which will be shared by Kansanshi and FQM’s Sentinel copper mine, will process 300 000 t of treated copper concentrate a year.

Dickinson expects the company to com-plete the contract by year-end. The scope of work involves installing more than 2 000 t of refractory linings on the client’s smelting furnaces, which include an Isasmelt furnace with a waste heat boiler, a matte-settling furnace, two anode refining furnaces, incinerators and four Peirce-Smith converters.

South African Prospects
Dickinson expects the demand for larger furnace projects in the South African processing industry to recover, despite local project curtailments.

He notes that Dickinson Group has completed several local furnace projects this year, with several larger projects in the pipeline for next year.

furnace demolition project at diversified miner Glencore’s Wonderkop chrome mine, near Rustenburg, in the North West, which the company completed in June.

The furnace demolition project was carried out within ten days. The project scope included lancing the shell plate, removing the ring feed, removing walkways and hand railings around the furnace, lancing and removing the furnace trough and roof skirts, demolishing and removing all furnace refractories, furnace debris and electrode stubs, as well as demolishing and removing frozen material or matte.

“The matte or skull encountered inside the furnace was 1.6 m at its thickest point, in the centre of the delta,” says Dickinson Group demolition division manager Marius Steyn. He tells Mining Weekly that the company removed about 1 900 t of frozen ferrochrome from the furnace.

“The removed frozen material is usually crushed or ground and, [where] possible, recycled to the clients’ furnaces and processes,” he adds.

Other projects recently completed by Dickinson Group included furnace repairs at Tronox KZN Sands at a heavy mineral sands smelter in KwaZulu-Natal, and maintenance contracts for steel major ArcelorMittal South Africa, which includes the maintenance of two blast furnaces.

Meanwhile, the company has an ongoing contract with steel and vanadium producer Evraz Highveld Steel & Vanadium to perform refractory demolition services for 13 rotary kilns at Iron Plants 1 and 2, near eMalahleni.

It also completed the demolition of a decommissioned furnace at a ferrosilicon processing plant, in KwaZulu-Natal. The plant was shut down and mothballed in 2012, but was restarted at the beginning of the year when it was sold to an American speciality metals company.

“As part of the plant restart, the client upgraded the furnace and Dickinson had to demolish and remove about 136 m3 of ferrosilicon and about 186 m3 of refractory lining material,” Steyn says.

Dickinson Group’s clients in the furnace, metals and minerals processing industry include copper, iron, steel, platinum, chrome, ferrochrome, ferrosilicon and cement producers.