Glencore Zinc Projects

​Following the success of the first Albion Process™ plant at San Juan de Neiva, Glencore then constructed a second Albion Process™ plant at the Nordenham zinc refinery. This plant was commissioned in March 2011. The feed to the plant is also finely ground lead/zinc concentrate from the McArthur River mine, and the process flowsheet is similar to that employed at San Juan de Neiva. 

The Nordenham Albion Process™ plant has a throughput of 36,000 tpa of concentrate, and the plant produces 16,000 tpa of cathode zinc from the concentrate, at a recovery of 98.8% w/w. 

The oxidative leach consists of an 800 m3 and a 280 m3 reactor in series. The 280 m3 reactor is similar in geometry to the San Juan de Neiva leach reactor, and the 800 m3 has a live height of 11.5 m and an aspect ratio of 1.5. Oxygen is injected into the base of the both reactors using HyperSparge™ supersonic oxygen injection lances, and the slurry is again agitated by a centrally mounted dual hydrofoil impeller. 

The lead residue from the Nordenham Albion Process™ plant is also sold locally to secondary lead producers. 

A summary of the key operating data for the two Glencore Zinc Albion Process™ plants is presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Summary Data for the Albion Process™ Plants