Tag Archives: TNG Ltd

TNG enlists Metso Outotec’s H2-based Circored process for Mount Peake concentrate plans

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TNG Limited, an Australia-based resources company, has awarded Metso Outotec a study looking at reducing Mount Peake Ti-V magnetite concentrate using Circored™ technology, which uses hydrogen as its only reductant source.

As part of the study, Metso Outotec will perform a techno-economic assessment to integrate Circored technology into TNG’s TIVAN® process that provides for the extraction of high-quality products from Ti-V magnetite orebodies.

Metso Outotec has been granted this assignment following positive test work performed for TNG, which confirmed the applicability of hydrogen-based reduction for Mount Peake Ti-V magnetite concentrate.

The test work program, which was a precursor to a more detailed commercial and technical evaluation, was a success, TNG says, delivering the following results:

  • Achieved iron metallisation targets across a range of testwork parameters;
  • Demonstrated the viability of processing Mount Peake titanomagnetite concentrate with Metso Outotec’s Circored technology; and
  • Generated samples for downstream validation testwork.

Now, Metso Outotec will further define the process flowsheet for the Mount Peake project and prepare a preliminary capital cost and operating cost (+/-30%) for a Circored Plant.

The use of hydrogen is a key part of the TNG’s medium-to-longer-term strategy to reduce its net carbon footprint from processing operations at the Mount Peake project.

TNG Managing Director & CEO, Paul Burton, said the Metso Outotec study also complements its existing partnership with SMS group, which TNG has a strategic partnership with, to investigate green hydrogen production at Mount Peake.

Located 235 km north of Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory of Australia, Mount Peake will be a long-life project producing a suite of high-quality, high-purity strategic products for global markets including vanadium pentoxide, titanium dioxide pigment and iron ore fines, accordiing to TNG. The project has received Major Project Status from the Australian Federal Government and the Northern Territory Government.

Circored, part of Metso Outotec’s Planet Positive portfolio, is a process that uses hydrogen as the sole reducing agent in the reduction of fine ores, enabling carbon neutrality for metal processing plants.

Clough works up integrated design layout for TNG’s Mount Peake project

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TNG Ltd says an integrated design layout for its flagship Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory of Australia has been developed and delivered by Australian engineering and construction company, Clough Projects Australia Pty Ltd.

As announced in October, TNG appointed Clough to work with its project team and SMS group for Mount Peake following a strategic decision to progress a fully-integrated operation at the Mount Peake mine site and given the severe restrictions on travel between Europe and Australia due to the COVID-19 pandemic that have impacted SMS’ ability to deliver a team in Australia.

Clough, together with TNG’s project team, has developed the integrated layout on the basis of the deliverables prepared under the front-end engineering and design study completed by SMS. The layout comprises the beneficiation plant, TIVAN® processing facility and plant utilities located within the mining lease footprint of Mount Peake site.

The integrated plants will be positioned adjacent to the western boundary of the designated mining areas within the company’s existing Mining Lease 29855, which covers an area of 1,460 ha. This area is capable of hosting a fully-integrated operation encompassing mining activities and waste storage, the beneficiation plant, the TIVAN processing facility and non-process infrastructure.

The integrated layout will be “unconstrained” compared with the size and shape requirements at the former Darwin site, TNG said. This offers the potential to capitalise on improving constructability, operability and maintenance for the project, as well as further cost optimisations from integrated infrastructure.

TNG has now commissioned Clough to progress value engineering to optimise outcomes in cost/schedule; and design aspects incorporating, civil, structural and architectural, mechanical, piping, electrical and instrumentation engineering disciplines, logistics and non-process infrastructure.

Clough will work with TNG’s project team and have support from SMS to undertake this next engineering and design stage and deliver an updated capital cost estimate for the development of Mount Peake, with this stage expected to be completed by May 2022.

TNG’s Managing Director and CEO, Paul Burton, said: “The completion of this design paves the way for value engineering and final design work to commence, which in turn will underpin an updated capital cost estimate and pave the way for project finance completion.”

Clough’s CEO and Managing Director, Peter Bennett, added: “We are excited with our ongoing collaboration with TNG on their Mount Peake project as we develop sustainable solutions for the resources sector in Australia. We are proud of our role and long history of delivering world-class engineering and construction projects and critical infrastructure both in Australia and overseas.”

Located 235 km north of Alice Springs, Mount Peake is expected to be a long-life project producing a suite of high-quality, high-purity strategic products for global markets including vanadium pentoxide, titanium dioxide pigment and iron ore fines. The project, which is expected to be a top-10 global producer, has received Major Project Status from the Northern Territory and Federal Governments.

TNG brings Clough into Mount Peake Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project fold

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TNG Ltd has appointed a subsidiary of engineering and construction company, Clough, to work with TNG’s project development team and the SMS Group on its flagship Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory of Australia.

TNG announced in September that it had decided to progress development of the project with a fully-integrated mining and processing operation within its existing mining leases. As part of this strategy, it was considered by the TNG team important to have a suitable Australian-based engineering group on board.

Following a tender process, Clough Projects Australia Pty Ltd was selected to work with TNG’s team to initially develop an optimised plant layout for the integration of the TIVAN® processing facility (TPF) and beneficiation plant at the mine site, on the basis of the deliverables prepared under the front-end engineering and design (FEED) study completed by SMS group.

Clough, TNG says, will work with SMS and TNG’s team given the severe restrictions on travel between Europe and Australia due to the COVID-19 pandemic that have impacted SMS’ ability to deliver a team in Australia.

TNG previously engaged Clough to assess the definitive feasibility study for the project and this new contract expands on this early work to progress the overall mine development, it says.

The optimised layout will be unconstrained compared with the size and shape requirements at the former Darwin site. This offers the potential to capitalise on improving constructability, operability and maintenance for the project, as well as further cost optimisations from integrated infrastructure, the company says.

The integrated plants will be positioned within the company’s existing Mining Lease 29855, which has a size of 1,460 ha. This area is capable of hosting a fully-integrated operation encompassing mining activities and waste storage, the beneficiation plant, the TPF and non-process infrastructure, according to TNG.

TNG’s Managing Director & CEO, Paul Burton, said: “From a strategic and logistical perspective given the continued global COVID-19-related travel restrictions, it is an advantage to have a locally-based engineering group working on this phase of the Mount Peake project with TNG and SMS.

“We expect the integrated plant layout will pave the way for further optimisation work that will tie back into the recently completed FEED study. These work programs are already underway. We look forward to working closely with Clough and our other engineering partners to rapidly advance the Mount Peake project.”

Located 235 km north of Alice Springs, Mount Peake is expected to be a long-life project producing a suite of high-quality, high-purity strategic products for global markets including vanadium pentoxide, titanium dioxide pigment and iron ore fines. The project, which is expected to be a top-10 global producer, has received Major Project Status from the Northern Territory and Federal Governments.

TNG “de-risks” Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project with SMS contract

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TNG has signed up SMS Group to carry out the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase of its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory of Australia.

The mandate for the contract encompasses the Mount Peake concentrator, the TIVAN® processing plant and all associated plant and equipment.

The two companies have been working together on the TIVAN process for some time. The process, developed by the two companies and Perth, Australia-based metallurgical consultants METS and the CSIRO, has been primarily designed for hydro-metallurgical extraction of vanadium, preferably as vanadium pentoxide, from a titano-magnetite orebody and also for separating the titanium and iron, preferably as ferric oxide and titanium dioxide.

The process has undergone more than six years of development including several successful pilot plant test stages, and is designed to use conventional and existing equipment currently used in extractive resources, TNG says.

In addition to the FEED contract for the process, plant and equipment, SMS’ scope will include providing a proposal for full procurement and construction, including the balance of plant and equipment to be provided on a turnkey, single-source, fixed price EPC basis.

Under the contract, SMS will now design and engineer the entire processing flowsheet for Mount Peake, which includes the concentrator, where magnetite concentrate is to be produced, and the downstream processing plant, where three high-purity products – vanadium pentoxide, titanium dioxide and iron oxide – will be produced.

Interestingly, SMS has agreed to provide to TNG production quantity, production rate and production quality guarantees, elements TNG Managing Director Paul Burton (pictured, left) said would significantly “de-risk” the project.

SMS’s responsible Managing Director Herbert Weissenbaeck (pictured, right) said the agreement was the logical next step in the development of TIVAN and Mount Peake – “which together have the potential to essentially disrupt the TiO2 pigment and vanadium space”.

The downstream processing plant will use TNG’s 100%-owned TIVAN process. The scope of work for the plant will include a titanium pigment plant – to be developed in collaboration with its nominated sub-contractor Ti-Cons.

An updated definitive feasibility study on Mount Peake from 2017 envisaged pre-production capex of A$853 million ($617 million) for a 3 Mt/y project ramping up to 6 Mt/y in year five. This would see 24.3 Mt of magnetic concentrate turned into 10.6 Mt iron oxide and 243,000 t of vanadium oxide.