The shortage of high-quality scrap metal and the prevailing challenging economic climate have provided a boost for local metallic iron units producer Iron Mineral Beneficiation Services (IMBS) and State-owned development finance institution the Industrial Development Corporation’s (IDC’s) SupaScrap technology as it nears commercial availabi- lity, says IDC basic metals and mining strategic business unit senior project manager Christian Carstens.

The technology currently uses stockpiled iron-bearing magnetite material at copper miner Palabora Mining’s mine, in Limpopo, to produce cold-briquetted metallic iron.

The IDC owns 37% of the shares of local metallic iron producer Masorini Iron Beneficiation (MIB) and the remainder is held by IMBS, which plans to grow the initial 50 000 t/y prototype plant at Palabora in modules to 500 000 t/y over the next two to three years.

Carstens tells Mining Weekly that the con- tinued increase in scrap metal export volumes has resulted in a lot of commercial interest in the SupaScrap’s cold-briquetted metallic iron, which is used to supply ferrous scrap supplements to the electric arc furnace steelmaking market.

The SupaScrap technology produces purer scrap metal supplements, and MIB has received a significant amount of feedback from steelmakers who need these supplements to dilute the effects of the residual copper in the scrap metal that is locally available.

Palabora Project Update

Carstens notes that MIB will soon complete the hot commissioning of the 50 000 t/y pilot plant. Cold commissioning of the unit has been completed, which included the successful testing of the mechanics, the motors and the materials handling systems.

He says the first commercial production of the cold-briquetted metallic iron has taken place at the plant. Steady-state production is expected to ramp up during the first quarter of this year.

Throughout its three-year trial period, the plant has performed exceptionally well in the harsh, hot and dry conditions of Limpopo and has also effectively processed even the finest of material, Carstens highlights.

He points out that a major advantage of the SupaScrap technology is that it does not use any electricity for the reduction reaction process. Only the auxiliary equipment – such as the plant’s motors and instrumentation, and automation equipment – requires electricity.

Energy for processing purposes is generated through coal devolatilisation and heat recovery from the process itself, Carstens adds.

“Understanding electricity availability, the IDC supported the technology because the technology uses minimal electricity. As we were well aware, if a company wanted to be a low-cost producer, this could not be achieved if it relied heavily on electricity use in its plants,” he comments.

Carstens points out that the process produces excess energy that can be used to power other parts of the processing plant, if required.

The energy savings and modular design of the plant have made it possible for the plant to have very low operational and capital expenditure costs, thereby ensuring that it can assist companies in securing profits even in low commodity price cycles, as is the case currently, he adds.

The technology’s modularity enables companies to scale production up and down as required. The IDC also sees future opportunities for this type of technology to be used with other ferro- alloy streams, such as ferrochrome and ferromanganese. This could form part of an industrial metals complex at Palabora.

Further, Carstens says many local ferroalloy producers are under significant strain to remain viable, owing to cheap imports. However, commercialising similar technology will assist in reducing producers’ overhead costs and impro- ving productivity levels. It could also possibly contribute to the development of a smart metals company and, subsequently, hundreds of downstream job opportunities in South Africa.

Carstens adds that, once the SupaScrap system is made available to the market, it is the IDC’s and IMBS’s intention to ensure that the units are manufactured locally, and preferably near to the Palabora mine, to increase local job creation in the region.