SOLUTION

• Roasting plant for pyrite concentrates

• Gas cleaning & sulfuric acid plants

• Calcine leaching & solvent extraction plants

• AG Mill, Thickeners, Filters & Courier online analyzers for Phosphate Beneficiation Plant

Rising Up to the Occasion

The same feed that they process in Mazidagi was utilised by another company in Turkey, which led to the site becoming aware of the remaining precious metals. Unfortunately for the other company, it proved to be too much of a challenge to recover. However, with a first-of-its-kind innovation, Metso Outotec believed in creating the right solution for them.

The customer wanted to recover metals like Co, Zn, Cu from pyrite, whilst also wanting to produce fertilizer by utilizing the phosphate resources. The first challenge they faced was that there was a phosphate reserve in an abandoned area, where human resources is challenging no matter what operational plans there are. On the other hand, there is the pyrite resource that is far away from phosphate and also carries other valuable metals. The main questions Metso Outotec supported the customer with was: How can we bring these together, what can we recover from this combination, and what technologies are applicable?

The idea was that by roasting the sulfur, it can be converted into sulfuric acid, which then goes into the direction of fertilizer production. We realized there are other valuable metallic elements which can be leached, and by utilising certain technologies, the site would be able to recover base metals such as cobalt, zinc and copper as well as precious metals.