First copper at Sepon two
weeks ahead of schedule
The first copper cathodes were stripped at the Sepon copper plant
in Laos in mid-March 2005, two weeks ahead of schedule. The ramp-up
to full production is on target and is expected to meet the planned
production for 2005 of 30 000 t of copper, increasing to 60 000 t/yr
of LME grade A cathodes in 2006.
BATEMAN's success at Sepon has affirmed it as a world leader in process
development, design and construction of copper hydrometallurgical
processing plants. The copper process at Sepon is novel and was developed
by BATEMAN and Oxiana during the definitive feasibility study which
was completed in September 2002. It is a fully-integrated circuit
which incorporates such state-of-the-art unit processes as milling
in acid solution, 80°C atmospheric leaching, high-temperature
autoclave leaching, flotation, solvent extraction and electrowinning.
The overall cost of the project was US$226M which included processing
plant and infrastructure upgrades, and the contract was awarded in
January 2003 by Lane Xang Minerals Limited (LXML), a Lao-based company
now 100 % owned by Oxiana Resources NL. Execution of the project was
done by Khanong Development Group which is a joint venture between
BATEMAN and Ausenco Limited of Australia.
Over the two-year project life, the project team overcame significant
challenges, which required considerable technological innovation and
detailed planning. The logistical and transport hurdles were complicated
by the remoteness of the site and involved some 1 430 loads of materials
and equipment, from 336 purchase orders and 33 major contracts, being
transported to site. This required a 967 km supply route from Laem
Chebang in Thailand with the last 42 km by dirt road. At peak activity,
some 2 193 people were employed on site for the construction, 36 of
whom were the joint-venture construction team and 600 of whom were
local workers drawn from surrounding villages.
Construction of the plant met first-world environmental standards
in line with the commitment by Oxiana and the joint venture to the
long term welfare of the Lao people. In addition, throughout the project
an excellent safety record was maintained with an LTIFR (lost-time
injury frequency rate) of 0,6 per million manhours for the 6,7M manhours
worked up to the end of February 2005.
The Sepon copper operation will process 1,3M t/yr of chalcocite-clay
run-of-mine (ROM) ore from an open-pit mine based on the Khanong orebody.
The orebody has a current resource of 42M t containing 3 % copper
and a mineable reserve of 15,5M t at 5,2 %.
Oxiana is an international mining and exploration company and is
currently the third largest Australian-based gold-mining company on
the Australian Stock Exchange. Besides Sepon and its operations in
Australia, it is also involved in considerable exploration and generative
projects in Laos, Philippines, Thailand and China.
For further information, please contact Jim Smith, General Manager,
Base Metals on +61-7-3320-3333 or email basemetals@batemanengineering.com.
