BATEMAN (Bateman Project Holdings Limited) recently completed a US$1,7 million contract for a study, or ‘Technical Project’, of a new nickel refining plant to be erected at the Nadezhda smelter complex near the city of Norilsk, in the Krasnoyarsk district of the Russian Federation.

Should a decision be reached to proceed with the project, this will be the largest single nickel refinery facility in the world, producing in excess of 180 000 tons of nickel per year.

The technical project was conducted for Metal Mining Company “Norilsk Nickel” (MMC NN), the world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium, which has been producing significant amounts of nickel, cobalt, copper and platinum group metals at this location for over sixty years. MMC NN and BATEMAN management have jointly expressed their commitment to making the proposed new plant the most modern and cost effective processing facility of this type.

In this arctic region of Siberia, the winter temperatures drop as low as –50°C with high winds gusting in excess of 100 km/h. The design and construction of a large metallurgical plant in such a location presents considerable logistical challenges.

The process on which the technical project is based consists of a unique converter matte leaching and metal purification process developed by MMC NN and tested in its facilities in Russia. During the technical project, which took over six months to complete, BATEMAN prepared about 280 process flow diagrams and piping and instrument diagrams, 1 500 equipment data sheets, and a huge quantity of other technical and commercial information in support of cost estimates for the plant.

Work was mainly carried out in the BATEMAN office in Brisbane, Australia, where a team of technical specialists from MMC NN spent about one month reviewing progress and participating in the critical design decisions. The BATEMAN team visited Norilsk several times and was in constant communication with the Norilsk project team throughout the study.

In August 2001 the BATEMAN team again visited Norilsk to present the conclusions of the Technical Project. An agreement was signed to establish a joint task team including representatives from MMC NN’s projects and operations departments, the Gipronickel Institute in St. Petersburg and BATEMAN to investigate the further development and implementation of this project.

For further details, please contact
Steve Burks, Managing Director, Bateman Metals,
at +27-11-899-2756 or email basemetals@batemanengineering.com

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