US$36 million construction contract for Ambatovy Project

Bateman Engineering has been awarded a contract for the construction of the sulphuric acid facilities at the Ambatovy nickel project in Madagascar. The US$36 million Fixed Price Lump Sum contract covers the erection and commissioning up to handover to the client for hot commissioning of two 2,750 t/day sulphur burning acid plants.

This construction contract follows the award, in August 2007, of an approximately US$100 million contract from the Ambatovy nickel project, and awarded by Dynatec Madagascar SA, for the engineering of and procurement for the plants. The process engineering during this phase was undertaken in collaboration with the Canadian technology company Noram Engineering and Constructors Limited who are the holders of the acid plant process technology, and with whom Bateman Engineering has entered into a long term technology licence agreement.

The 5,500 t/day facility will comprise a shared sulphur melting and storage area and two independent sulphur burning acid plants. Construction and commissioning of the first acid plant is due to be completed in November 2009.

The Ambatovy project is among the largest nickel projects under development in the world, with an annual design capacity of 60,000 tons of nickel, 5,600 tons of cobalt and 190,000 tons of ammonium sulphate. The Ambatovy mine site is located east of the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo, and lies within a few kilometres of the main road and rail system, connecting Antananarivo and the main port city of Toamasina on the east coast. The project consists of an open-pit mining operation and an ore preparation plant at the mine site. The slurried laterite ore will be delivered by pipeline to a process plant and refinery, located a few kilometres from the port of Toamasina.

Commenting on the award, Eddie du Rand, Group CEO of Bateman Engineering, said: “The award follows the successful completion of the engineering and procurement phase of the project and is testimony to the confidence Bateman Engineering has engendered in the client. This is particularly pleasing as this contract provides us with a state-of-the-art reference plant for our re-entry into this significant utility market.”

The Group’s expertise in acid plants dates back some 30 years when it built the 600 t/day acid production plant at Rössing Uranium mine in Namibia (1977), and later, in 1985, upgraded it to reduce catalyst consumption and increase acid plant throughput. Bateman Engineering was also responsible for acid plants for Fedmis in Phalaborwa, South Africa, at Buffelsfontein Gold Mine in Potchefstroom, South Africa, and for Skorpion Zinc Mine in Namibia.

Bateman Engineering provides comprehensive process design and project management skills for establishing new or upgrading existing sulphuric acid facilities utilising sulphur burning, acid regeneration as well as pyrite roasting, with associated gas cleaning operations to ensure compliance with international environmental regulations. The agreement with Noram provides Bateman Engineering with access to its full range of proprietary equipment for acid regeneration covering converters, gas exchangers, sulphur furnaces, acid coolers, acid towers, with proprietary acid distributors, and packing, economisers and superheaters.

For further information, contact Michael Hughes, Project Director on +27-11-899-9111 or email michael.hughes@batemanengineering.com.

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