Thursday, February 13, 2025

BCL refurbishes its smelter

BCL mine has just refurbished its smelter in a bid to give it the necessary fire-power to process ore mined from Selibe and Phikwe mines.
The exercise took 40 days and it was completed last week.

Speaking at the ceremony, BCL General Manager, Montwedi Mphathi, said that the shutdown was unique, particularly because of the modifications that were made to the flash smelting furnace and the waste heat boiler which improved efficiency and kept the mine on pace with modern trends.

The previous 4 burners on the flash smelting furnace were replaced with one bigger and more efficient burner and the boiler was inspected and passed as required by law. Also four tube pendants on the convection side of the waste heat boiler were replaced with new rapped pendants to improve dust collection. Baffles were also installed in the radiant section to reduce the gas temperature into the precipitators.

The maintenance also included the rebuilding of one electric furnace complete with a new shell refractory lining and power supply system. The electrostatic precipitators were also refurbished and fitted with new collector plates and emitter wires to improve efficiency. Mphathi also revealed that the shutdown was budgeted at P185 million and related projects also amounted to P131 million bringing the total cost of the project to P316 million.

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