RE:RE:RE:Mining i think you are gonna be right..Actually I don't think it's a major flaw in process. Check out the article below written by the cheif metallurgist for the Boleo Project, and member of BAJ Board of Directors. This process has been tested thoroughly at pilot plant like 10 years ago, I think they ironed out the bugs. Now, there may be little errors that could not be foreseen in pilot testing (i.e. there's bigger pipes, and higher pressures, and more pump head, etc, blown gaskets, leakages, corrosion, any number of things that are site-specific risks, you can't really capture in pilot testing) But I think the processes themselves are proven.
I really think it comes down to a case of bad estimating. Typical execution level estimating is +/-5%. This additonal 200M$ is about 10%. So there's some bad estimating there, maybe KORES was a bit ambitious with the schedule. They are a relatively new player on the global mining scene, they haven't really dialed in their estimating contingencies yet because they haven't executed enough projects to know just how much a slight schedule delay can cost. For a project of this size, every day that you keep a full construction team on site is gonna cost around a million$
https://www.saimm.co.za/Conferences/Hydro2009/187-212_Dreisinger.pdf
Here is an exceprt:
The ore will be treated by a hydrometallurgical process involving acid—seawater leaching
with recovery of copper and cobalt metal cathode, zinc sulphate crystal and eventually
manganese carbonate precipitate.
Process development of the metallurgical flowsheet for Boleo has gone through bench and
integrated pilot-plant testing.
An initial ‘proof of principle’ pilot plant was executed at SGS Lakefield Research in Canada
in November 2004. The major focus of the proof of principle pilot plant was to confirm that
the clayey Boleo mineralization could be thickened and washed in a conventional CCD train
using high rate thickeners and that the CSIRO ‘DSX’ solvent extraction system could be used
to recover cobalt and zinc. The DSX system involves mixing LIX 63 with Versatic 10
extractant to improve selectivity for (Co+Zn)/Mn.
Since the initial proof of principle pilot plant in 2004, further work has been undertaken
with CSIRO (Australia) to optimize the DSX solvent extractant composition and to add a
manganese recovery process to the Boleo flowsheet. The simple addition of sodium carbonate
(soda ash) to the DSX raffinate was found to precipitate a manganese carbonate product of
high purity. This manganese carbonate material may form a feedstock to the production of
manganese chemicals, manganese metal or electrolytic manganese dioxide.
The improved metallurgical flowsheet for Boleo has now been evaluated in a fully
integrated demonstration pilot plant at SGS Lakefield Research in Canada.