Pilot Trial - Calcining Commenced
The key processing steps for the Broken Hill Cobalt Project are shown in Figure 1. The process is divided into concentration, calcining, leaching and product recovery. The COB Pilot Plant will process 90 tonnes of ore samples which have been collected from prior drilling programs. The concentration circuit will generate approximately 15 tonnes of pyrite concentrate for downstream processing. Pilot trials of the calcining step have recently commenced at Anergy Australia’s demonstration facility in Bunbury, Western Australia, processing the first 7 tonne portion of pyrite concentrate. We expect the calcining of this 7 tonne sample to be completed shortly.
Anergy (www.anergy.com) is a leader in rotary kiln design and manufacture for high temperature pyrolysis applications. These include their carbon regeneration kilns for the gold industry, supplied globally for over 30 years under Anergy’s “Ansac” brand. COB has partnered with Anergy, University of NSW, and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) to deliver a research project for pyrolysis of pyrite (calcining). This project has been partially funded ($2.4m) by the Australian Government as part of the CRC-P Round 8 funding.