Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
in Copper Metallurgy
Frank Crundwell
CM Solutions (Pty) Ltd
January 2006
Professional Development
Finance for Professionals
Professional Development topics
Technology
HotHeap
Stickibugs
Redostat
AweSym
Heap Leaching
HotHeap
Stickibugs
Bacterial
Leaching
Fairview
South
Africa
960 t/day of
sulphide
concentrate
Capex:
$25 million
Opex: $66/t
Sansu
Ghana
History of BIOXTM
1998: 60 t/d Tamboraque
Commercialisation
Phase
Demonstration
Laboratory
1970
1980
1990
2000
BioCOP:
Bioleaching
of copper
sulphides at
80C
The copper
sulphide
itself is the
valuable
product
Heap Leaching
Used extensively in copper
South Western USA and Chile
Oxide ores, using a simple acid reaction
More recently applied to sulphide ores
Application of heap leaching and SX/EW is widely regarded
as reviving the US copper industry
Huge potential for application to copper sulphides
Cost advantages
Ore bodies have sulphides underneath them
Gunpowder SxEw
200
190
180
170
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Stafford District
Hindustan Copper
Balcooma
Sipalay
Ivan/Zar
Los Bronces
Las Cascadas
Haib
Luanshya/Baluba
Carlota
Salvador Composite
El Soldado Composite
Gibraltar Composite
Great Lakes
Carmacks
San Antonio
O'Okiep
Ray Composite
Cobriza
Nifty
Bagdad Composite
Huckleberry
Ajo
Florence
Jabal Al-Said
Mufulira
Mission
Andina
50%
Tintaya Composite
El Tesoro
Cobar - CSA
Lo Aguirre
Quellaveco
Tyrone Composite
Eloise
Gasp
Chino Composite
Andacollo SxEw
El Teniente Composite
Konkola
Manto Verde
Cananea Composite
25%
Carolina de Michilla
Cerro Colorado
Zaldvar SxEw
Sanyati
Morenci Composite
Collahuasi Composite
Chuquicamata Composite
Girilambone
Quebrada Blanca
El Abra
Cuajone
Loma Bayes
Radomiro Tomic
Toquepala Composite
Escondida Composite
Capacity
75%
HotHeap
Improve efficiency by getting heaps hot
StickiBugs
Improve efficiency by getting bacterial into the
heap
Irrigation
Water
Conduction
Aeration
Reaction
generates
heat in heap
Transport processes
within the heap:
conduction, water
advection and gas
advection
Energy generation by
leaching reaction
Boundary conditions
Temperature
HotHeap
control
system
Water
Aeration
Chalcocite/Covellite leaching
Extent of Leaching
25
Temp (C)
20
15
10
5
0
0
3
Depth (m )
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
3
Depth (m )
Chalcopyrite leaching
Heap temperature
1%
12
1%
Extent of Leaching
14
10
Temp C
0%
0%
6
Average
At selected point
PLS
0%
0%
0%
0
Day 0
0
Day 50
3
Depth (m )
100
80
70
60
60
Temp (C)
80
40
50
40
30
20
20
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718
Depth (m)
Day 0
Day 100
Day 200
Day 300
Day 400
StickiBugs
StickiBugs Flowsheet
Inoculum solution
StickiBugsTM
Crushed ore
Agglomerated ore
Sulphuric
acid
Bio-heap
Agglomeration
drum
SX
Solvent extraction raffinate
EW
PLS pond
Cu extraction (%)
60
50
40
Industry & Mine
30
Laboratory practice
Sterile control
20
10
0
0
50
100
150
200
Time (days)
250
StickiBugs simulations:
Fe extraction (%)
30
20
Sterile control
0
0
50
100
150
200
Time (days)
250
Bacterial adhesiveness
100
90
N2 limitation
80
60
Baseline for Fe
50
CO2 limitation
40
Baseline for S
30
20
Less adhesive
% not attached
70
10
0
0
50
100
150
Time (min)
200
250
300
Economic context
Process Economics
Competition, strategy and research investment
Cost curves
Consolidation
Five main producers accounted for 39% of
production in 1990
By 2001 the top five accounted for 50%
Anglo/Minorco/Desputada
Phelps Dodge/Cyprus Amax
BHP/Billiton/RioAlgom
Noranda/Falconbridge
Economic context
Process Economics
Sulfide
Resources
Copper Cathode
to Market
Concentration
Intermediate market:
Concentrate may be
sold to custom
smelters or traders.
Smelting and
Refining
35
30
25
Smelters seeing an
increasing price
volatility
20
15
10
5
0
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
Date
1995
2000
2005
Difficult environment
to invest in smelting,
particularly in the
West
NPV =
(1 + discount rate)
i =1
Cash Flow i
ti
Investment
Capital costs
Capital costs (US c per lb pa)
300
250
Smelters
are
generally
more
capital
intensive
200
Smelter
150
100
Hydromet
50
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Operating costs
45
40
35
Smelters
are
generally
more
energy
efficient
30
25
Hydromet
20
Smelter
15
10
5
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Smelter
-50
Hydromet
-100
Neither
smelters nor
the
competing
hydromet
processes
are
economically
viable
-150
-200
-250
-300
-350
-400
0
100
200
300
36
Net Value
32
28
Leaching
BioCOP
and
and
SX/EW
SX/EW
BioCOP
24
20
16
Smelting
and
Smelting
refining
12
8
4
0
40
80
120
160
200
150-200
100-150
50-100
0-50
-50-0
-100--50
-150--100
-200--150
-250--200
-300--250
-350--300
Economic context
Process Economics
Technical uncertainty
Not correlated with economy
Endogenous - learn by doing
Incentives for starting business (NPV<0?)
Bad news
Investment::
Good news
time
An opportunity to
make a decision
after events unfold
Future Event
Did the price go
up or down?
No - do nothing
Invest in
feasibility study
time
No - do nothing
Uncertainty Volatility
Probability
Value
Cone of Uncertainty
Time
The opportunity to invest is an option the firm has the right, but
not the obligation, to decide to invest in the project.
The value is derived from the flexibility the firm has to make
decisions based on its own opportunities.
Exercise price
250
200
150
Strategic value
100
Project value
50
Option value
Project value
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Decision making
150
125
Value (US
$)
100
75
50
Invest
when price
hits here
25
NPV
0
0
(b)
10
20
30
Price, P
40
(US $)
50
60
Strategic value
Due to
uncertainty in
prices, option
approach says
there is value in
doing research.
300
Exercise price
250
200
150
100
Option, or
strategic
value
50
Project value
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
However, it also
says that
investment is
highly unlikely
prices should go
to 60 c/lb before
investing
BHP Billiton and Codelco have teamed up under the banner of Alliance Copper to develop
BioCOP.
Phelps Dodge and Placer have teamed up to develop a pressure leaching facility at Bagdad,
Arizona.
Outokumpu, the developer of the industrys leading technology, flash smelting, has announced
the piloting the HydroCopper.
300
250
200
Project value
150
100
Research value
50
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
The research is
not meant to be
implemented it
is meant as a
competitive
weapon in the
negotiation of
TC/RC prices
Competition
Leaching
SX & EW
Sulfide
Resources
Copper Cathode
to Market
Concentration
Intermediate market:
Concentrate may be
sold to custom
smelters or traders.
Competition between
miners on basis of ore
quality and tonnage
Smelting and
Refining
Monte Carlo
simulation
showed that this
strategy had
significant value,
but is very
dependent on
the mothballing
and re-activation
costs
Re-activate Price
30
25
20
Mothball Price
15
10
Price
Operating period
5
0
0
10
12
Years
14
16
18
20
22
Concluding remarks